Caitlin Davies

Her latest non-fiction book, Bad Girls (John Murray), is a history of Holloway Prison in north London, once the largest women's prison in Western Europe. The prison closed in July 2016; the site is being redeveloped for housing. Davies was the only journalist granted access to the prison and its archives. Bad Girls is described as 'an absorbing study' by the Sunday Times and a 'ripping good read' by Jeremy Corbyn, MP. Bad Girls was longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing 2019 https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-prizes/2019-prize/longlists/.

In 2015 her non-fiction book Downstream: a history and celebration of swimming the River Thames was published. It was described by The Independent as 'a fascinating cultural history'. It resulted in a three-week Thames swimming showcase at the Museum of London. Caitlin is the historical advisor for the hit independent film The Ponds, directed by Patrick McLennan and Samuel Smith, and an ambassador for the Thames Baths Project which will reintroduce swimming to the River Thames in central London.

From 2014 to 2017 Davies worked as a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of Westminster, in the faculty of Media, Arts & Design, Harrow Campus. She has been an RLF Fellow at the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Science Museum since February 2019.

She has also written an illustrated non-fiction book on the bathing ponds and lido on Hampstead Heath, Taking the Waters: a swim around Hampstead Heath (2012), with photographs by Ruth Corney, and a social history of Camden Lock (2013). As a journalist her work has appeared in a variety of newspapers and magazines including The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, The Mail on Sunday, Town and Country and Tate Etc..

Davies is the author of six novels; Jamestown Blues (1996), Black Mulberries (2008), Friends Like Us (2009), The Ghost of Lily Painter (2011) a fictionalised account of two Edwardian baby farmers who were hanged at Holloway Prison in 1903, Family Likeness (2013) which draws on the experiences of mixed race UK children born to African American GIs during World War Two, as well as the story of Dido Elizabeth Belle, Britain's 'first black aristocrat'. Her latest novel is Daisy Belle: Swimming Champion of the World, based on the life of Agnes Beckwith, published by Unbound in September 2018 https://unbound.com/books/daisy-belle.

Although born in England, Davies has been associated with Botswana since 1990 when she met her husband, the former Botswana MP Ronald Ridge, while studying for a Master's in English at Clark University, USA. Relocating to Botswana and working as a teacher, and then a freelance journalist, she wrote for Botswana's first tabloid newspaper The Voice and then as editor of The Okavango Newspaper. She was twice arrested as a journalist, once for "causing fear and alarm", and acquitted. In 2000, she received an award from the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) 'in recognition for consistent and outstanding journalistic work.'

Caitlin Davies (born 6 March 1964) is an English author, journalist and teacher. Her parents are Hunter Davies and Margaret Forster, both well-known writers. Hunter Davies wrote regularly about Caitlin and her brother Jake and sister Flora in a weekly Punch magazine column which ran in the 1970s, giving a broad insight into their upbringing. In her youth she was also frequently referred to by Auberon Waugh in his Private Eye diary.