It’s going to be a very exciting second half of 2025, with my first adult novel in over ten years being published in a co-ordinated worldwide release. Slashed Beauties is historical fantasy (gothic feminist body horror, to be precise) and the story is based on real-life anatomical wax models called Anatomical Venuses which were produced in the late 1700s and originally designed to encourage male medical students to study female anatomy.

Slashed Beauties is a tale told in two timelines – in 1769 London we meet Eleanor, Emily and Elizabeth, whose lives become magically (and murderously) intertwined when they meet an anatomist with a wicked plan. And in present day London we have young antiques dealer Alys, who must find a way to break her cursed connection to the trio.

I first came upon the idea for Slashed Beauties after seeing an Anatomical Venus in a museum in Vienna. This wax model of a woman was naked except for some lustrous pearls at her neck. She had long flowing locks of real hair, dewy waxen skin, an erotic expression and … her entrails on display. I was, quite literally, mesmerized. To the modern eye, she was an uncanny collision of art and science and I immediately knew I would have to weave a tale around this complicated creature.

Slashed Beauties will be published by VERVE Books in the UK, Berkley/Penguin in the USA and HQ/HarperCollins in Australia/NZ as well as in other territories and also in audio. I’ve just finished writing the second book in this contract, All Her Beautiful Deaths, which delves into the fascinating world of Victorian death photography.