Elizabeth Buchan

Elizabeth Buchan is a British novelist whose work ranges from contemporary fiction to historical novels shaped by war, revolution and political upheaval. She spent parts of her childhood in Egypt and Nigeria before living in several parts of Britain, and studied English and History at the University of Kent. Buchan began her publishing career at Penguin Books, writing jacket copy, and later became a fiction editor at Random House before leaving publishing to write full time. She has also reviewed books for national newspapers, chaired and judged literary prizes, and served as chairman of the Romantic Novelists’ Association.

Her historical fiction covers a wide range of periods. Daughters of the Storm is set during the French Revolution, while Light of the Moon is set in occupied France during the Second World War. I Can’t Begin to Tell You follows resistance and espionage in German-occupied Denmark, and The New Mrs Clifton explores the tensions of post-war Britain through a returning soldier and his German wife. Consider the Lily is set in England from 1929 and follows a family estate through the interwar years, while The Museum of Broken Promises moves between the present and communist Prague in 1985. Two Women in Rome uncovers a story rooted in the political turmoil of post-war Italy, and Bonjour, Sophie begins in 1959 as its young heroine leaves England for a Paris still living with the consequences of the Second World War. Buchan’s historical novels characteristically place intimate relationships, family loyalties and personal choices within periods of wider social and political change.