Hilary Bailey Biography

British novelist, short-story writer, and critic, born in Kent, educated at Newnham College, Cambridge. Her short stories have been published in magazines ranging from Science Fantasy to Bananas, and she edited New Worlds from 1973 to 1975. Her first novel, Polly Put the Kettle On (1975), was a lively portrait of the 1960s; a sequel, As Time Goes By (1988), brings its characters into the 1980s. Amongst other novels are Mrs Mulvaney (1975), set in the 1970s; All the Days of My Life (1984), a family saga focusing on Molly Flanders; and Hennie Richards (1985), whose protagonist is an international female smuggler. Her formidable story-telling ability is combined with a technique in which contemporary historical events, such as the downfall of the Kray brothers and the bombing campaigns of the Angry Brigade, are incorporated into the narrative. The Cry from Street to Street (1992), a fictionalized documentary account by an ex-prostitute, is set in the London of Jack the Ripper; Cassandra: Princess of Troy (1993) retells the myth of the Trojan War, while in The Strange Adventures of Charlotte Holmes (1994) Bailey returns to Victorian crime in a novel that challenges the status of her heroine's brother, the famous detective Sherlock Holmes. Subsequent novels include Frankenstein's Bride (1995). Her non-fiction work includes her biography of Vera Brittain of 1987.