Private Inquiries

The history of the UK's real-life female detectives told for the first time. The female detective has been a staple of popular culture for over 150 years, from plucky Victorian lady detectives, to busy-body spinster Miss Marple and fearless modern investigators like Mma Ramotswe and Lisbeth Salander. But what about the real-life women behind these fictional tales ? what crimes did they solve, and where are their stories? In Private Inquiries, Caitlin Davies traces the history of the UK's female investigators for the first time, uncovering the truth about their lives and careers from the 1860s to the present day. Women like Annie Betts ? the 'Lady Sherlock Holmes' ? one of the first shop detectives and Annette Kerner ? 'the woman of a hundred faces' ? who opened The Mayfair Detective Agency in the 1920s. In a uniquely immersive approach the author will follow in the footsteps of her subjects, undertaking a professional qualification to become a Private Investigator and shadowing modern PIs to find out what it's really like to be paid to spy on people's lives. AUTHOR: Caitlin Davies is a novelist, non-fiction writer, award-winning journalist and teacher. She is the author of six novels, six non-fiction books, and several short stories. She has written for The Independent, The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday. Her books include 'Bad Girls: a History of Rebels and Renegades', a history of Holloway Prison, and 'Queens of the Underworld' about female crooks. She lives in London. 30 b/w illustrations