Katie Hickman is the author of nine previous books, including two bestselling works of non-fiction, Daughters of Britannia - in the Sunday Times bestseller lists for ten months and a twenty-part series for BBC Radio 4 - and Courtesans. She has also written a trilogy of historical novels - The Aviary Gate, The Pindar Diamond and The House at Bishopgate - which between them have been translated into twenty languages. Her other books include two highly acclaimed travel books. Travels with a Mexican Circus (originally published as A Trip to the Light Fantastic) was shortlisted for the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, and was one of the Independent's Books of the Year. Her history of British women in pre-Raj India, She-Merchants, Buccaneers and Gentlewomen, was published in 2019. Born into a diplomatic family, Katie Hickman had a peripatetic childhood, growing up in Spain, Ireland, Singapore and South America. She lives in London on a converted barge on the River Thames.