‘Anyone familiar with Purcell's previous novels will know she's an expert at bone-rattling tension and Bone China is just as eerie. A classic Victorian tale of murder most foul, twisted with a curious supernatural thread’ - Stylist ‘ The Silent Companions was a chillingly note-perfect take on Victorian gothic and makes a brilliant return to the genre with this much-anticipated tale. as well as a splendid mystery with suitably melodramatic flourishes’ - Guardian Vivid and well researched, this book is an evocative portrait of a society that punishes women who dare to contravene social norms. ‘A compelling slice of early Victorian gothic . It's what crumpets and dismal afternoons were made for’ - Glamour ‘ Irresistibly creepy, this romps along, Purcell turning her screws with skill. ‘ A true page-turner.neatly crafted and compelling.with a spine-tingling revelation every few pages’ - Times Literary Supplement ‘Really tense and unnerving, it still won't let me go’ - Woman & Home ‘Laura Purcell has nailed it with a story that conjures up Susan Hill's The Woman In Black, Henry James's The Turn Of The Screw and a little bit of Rebeccaby Daphne du Maurier’ - Emerald Street ‘Layering on the dark and creepy, this intriguingly plotted novel is the full-blown Gothic, maintaining throughout an unsettling claustrophobic atmosphere mixed with some unusual historical detail’ - Daily Mail ‘ shone, for originality for the sheer quality of the writing, the characters and some masterly chills’ - Peter James ‘ extraordinary, memorable and truly haunting book’ - Jojo Moyes

Laura’s newest novel, The Whispering Muse, was published in February 2023 by Raven Books. She contributed to the Sunday Times Bestselling collection The Haunting Season.

These include Cameo, featured in Phantoms, Vanitas in the Audible Original Homeless Bodies and Other Stories and Creeping Ivy, published October 2020 in After Sundown. In the USA Laura is published by Penguin Books, where The Corset is titled The Poison Thread and Bone China is called The House of Whispers.Īdditionally, Laura's short stories have been published in a number of collections. Her other Gothic titles include The Corset, Bone China and her most recent novel The Shape of Darkness.

Her first Gothic novel for Raven Books, The Silent Companions, was a Radio 2 Book Club pick, was selected for the Zoe Ball ITV Book Club and was the winner of the Thumping Good Read Award. She began her career with two historical novels about the Hanoverian monarchs, Queen of Bedlam and Mistress of the Court. Laura Purcell is a former bookseller living in Colchester, Essex with her husband and pet guinea pigs.

Queen of bedlam laura purcell