Earlier this year, I took part in an author panel with fellow crime writers T A Williams and Debbie Young to talk about writing cosy crime. Here are some of my answers to the questions we discussed.

An event to mark the 80th anniversary of the Exeter Blitz held a personal association for my family – and inspired reminiscences of our family’s connection with the railways and the bygone era of steam trains.

The first female Members of Parliament challenged polite society’s perception of what an MP should look and sound like...

The 1929 general election became known as the Flapper Election because, for the first time, young women in Britain had the right to vote.

A plot twist in Death at Crookham Hall is based on a list produced by the Society for the Promotion of Nature Reserves. The Society was founded in 1912 and was the forerunner for the Wildlife Trusts we have in the UK today.

Percy Baverstock is a favourite character from Death at Crookham Hall, so when I was invited to enjoy a cocktail with one of my characters, he was the perfect choice. We meet Percy at the Tequila Mockingbird Cocktail Bar...

In 1918, women under the age of 30 could stand for Parliament despite not yet having the right to vote in an election...

100 years on, mystery still surrounds the death of Mabel Greenwood from alleged arsenic poisoning in 1919...

Cryptic ads for abortion pills, claiming to quickly 'correct all irregularities' and 'remove all obstructions' were commonplace in newspapers during the early part of the twentieth century...

Thousands of women worked in munitions factories during the First World War. Prolonged exposure to the chemical TNT turned the women’s skin a lurid yellow colour. As a result, they became known as the canary girls...