Lucretia grindle biography sample

Guest Post by Lucretia Grindle on the Histroical Background to the Women in The Devil’s Glove

As I began to think about the Salem witchcraft trials, I was struck by what a distinctly female episode Salem was. Sure, you’ve got the Mathers, father and son, and the magistrates – all men. But this was a furor that was whipped up and powered by women, some of them very young women. And, while six men were executed (five hanged and one pressed to death) fourteen women were hanged. Because other women accused them. 

All of which led me to consider the roles women played in 17 century New England. As I began to contemplate The Devil’s Glove, I knew that my central character would be female, and so it seemed important to try to get past preconceptions and really understand the scope of possibility as well as the limitations on women’s lives in that time and place. What were they able to do, and not do? How did they fit, and not fit into the power structure of society? 

Salem certainly seemed a ‘fracture’; an incident when teen-aged girls, some of them orphaned, most of them servants and dependents – in other words those who would usually be the most un-empowered – wielded extraordinary power. A power they used to attack some of the most powerful female figures in the Massachusetts colony. Established and respected matrons like Rebecca Nurse. Women of wealth and social standing like Mary English. Women who would normally be politically untouchable, like the governor’s sister, Anne Phipps. What other ‘fractures’ might I find, if I went looking?

One of the greatest pleasures of writing history, and historical fiction in particular, is the way in which you begin thinking you know about something, only to discover facets of a world that are a complete surprise. So as I settled into archives and began to peel back layers, I was thrilled to find a complex and unexpected past peopled with an astonishing array of women. Resolve Hammond and he

American author of mystery fiction (born )

Lucretia Walsh Grindle (born May 10, ) is an American author of mystery fiction. She is signed to Macmillan Publishers.

Early life

Lucretia Grindle is one of four children of newspaper reporter turned entrepreneur Paul Davidson Grindle and his wife Patricia née Walsh. She has a sister and two brothers. She was born in Boston MA, and spent her formative years living with her family either at her parents' American home in Sherborn, Massachusetts, or at their British home in the village of Benenden in Kent. Her mother, who was born on the Apache Reservation below Jerome, Arizona, and who before her marriage was the head show girl at Ringling Brother's and Barnum and Bailey circus where she was the first woman to feature and solo in a mixed act of large cats, was the director of the Moat House Riding Academy also in Benenden. Grindle attended school in both the US and UK, and was a Senior Fellow and graduated with a BA in Religion from Dartmouth College. She subsequently studied Theology and Philosophy at Oxford University. On leaving Oxford she worked in London as a freelance journalist specializing in World War II Intelligence and "feature length profile work and sport" – in the US, UK and Canada. She later owned, trained, and competed in the equestrian sport of Three Day Eventing, working with the US Equestrian Team's Young Riders Program throughout the s, and with the Canadian Equestrian Federation through the Atlanta Olympics and European and World Games.

Writing career

Grindle's first two published novels, the Pocket Books-issued The Killing of Ellis Martin (, short listed for the Agatha Award for Best first novel) and So Little to Die For (), both featured elements of the cozy mystery genre and had a common central character in British police inspector H. W. Ross. Later recalling the first phase of her care

Published twice monthly, this newsletter is free. Each edition focuses on a woman in history, or trend or event that impacted and/or defined women in history. I am an historian and writer specializing in Historical Fiction. This is a personal selection, and a deliberately eclectic group - everyone from Nefertiti to Harriet Tubman to Jane Grey and Molly Brandt and back again.

Every edition of Daughters of Time comes in three parts. The first is an introductory essay. Who is this person? What did she do? Why should you care? I don’t footnote these, but I do believe in accuracy. I think it’s the least we owe to other lives, so I do my best to get the facts right.

I am also a big believer in the links between memory and place. So, the second part of each newsletter is practical travel info. Where to find What She Left Behind. What it is. How to Get There. And, Where to Stay, and Eat, when you do.

The third part is additional reading, and/or watching and listening. Daughters of Time is designed to be kind of a good quick prep, not a deep dive. Part three is the best biography, the great piece of historical fiction, and if they exist, the film, podcast or TV that, for me anyway, really brought her alive. I’m an unabashed Audible Addict, so some of these will be ‘listens’. Again, it’s my personal selection, only the stuff I really love. There are no affiliate links.

That’s it in a nutshell. More detailed info - ruminations, thoughts, the dreaded ‘About Me’- can be found in the ‘About’ section. I hope you enjoy. And, if you have a friend who might enjoy too, and feel like recommending, so much the better! But enough of this. Now -

She was born in Derbyshire in England and France were, for once, at peace. But trouble was brewing. Henry VIII was in love with Anne Boleyn and the pope had just refused him a divorce. In , The Act of Supremacy was passed, breaking with Rome and making Henry head of an independent Church of England. From now on, who was