Kate Mosse

Kate Mosse is a British novelist, playwright, essayist and non-fiction writer known for atmospheric historical fiction, Gothic mysteries and stories that restore women to the centre of the historical record. She is the Founder Director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Visiting Professor at the University of Chichester. Her non-fiction includes An Extra Pair of Hands and Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries, and she was awarded a CBE for services to literature, women and charity in 2024.

Mosse first achieved international success with the Languedoc Trilogy—Labyrinth, Sepulchre and Citadel—which connects modern characters with episodes from southern France’s medieval, nineteenth-century and Second World War history. Her four-volume Joubert Family Chronicles begins with The Burning Chambers, set during the French Wars of Religion, and continues through The City of Tears, The Ghost Ship and The Map of Bones. The series follows generations of a Huguenot family from sixteenth-century France and Amsterdam to North Africa and the Cape of Good Hope, combining religious persecution, migration, piracy, family secrets and the experiences of women whose lives were often excluded from conventional histories.