Jacqueline Winspear

Jacqueline Winspear is a British-American author of historical mysteries and novels shaped by the social consequences of war. Born and raised in Kent, she studied at the University of London’s Institute of Education and worked in academic publishing, higher education and marketing before emigrating to the United States in 1990. Her interest in the First World War was influenced by the experiences of her grandfather, who was severely wounded and suffered shell shock after the Battle of the Somme.

Winspear is best known for the eighteen-volume Maisie Dobbs series, which follows a former wartime nurse who becomes a psychologist and private investigator. Beginning in the aftermath of the First World War and extending into the Second World War, the novels combine criminal investigations with themes of trauma, class, women’s independence and political extremism. Winspear has also written the standalone historical novels The Care and Management of Lies and The White Lady, as well as the memoir This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing. Her work has received Agatha, Edgar, Macavity, Barry and Sue Feder awards.

Periods and events

World War II The Blitz Special Operations Executive Austerity Britain Great Depression Western Front World War I Appeasement and the Road to War Nazi Germany Shell Shock and Military Psychiatry in World War I World War I Air War Interwar Period Rise of Fascism Spanish Civil War

Series

Series by Jacqueline Winspear (1 series)

Maisie Dobbs Series in Order

by Jacqueline Winspear 18 books 4.5

The Maisie Dobbs series follows a working-class London girl who becomes a nurse, psychologist and private investigator after education and service during the First World War. Beginning with her first independent case in 1929, the novels combine murder investigations with Maisie’s continuing effort to understand the physical and…