Stevie Davies

Stevie Davies is a novelist, literary critic, biographer and historian. She was born in Wales and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and a Member of the Academi Gymreig.

Her first novel, Boy Blue (1987) won the Fawcett Society Book Prize in 1989. Closing the Book (1994) was on the longlist for the Booker Prize, and the shortlist for the Fawcett Society Book Prize. Her fifth novel, Four Dreamers and Emily, described as ‘poignant, funny and luminous… immensely enjoyable, lit by comedy and wisdom’ (Helen Dunmore, The Times) was published in 1996. The Web of Belonging (1997) was shortlisted for the Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year Prize and the Portico Prize. Impassioned Clay (1999), was shortlisted for the Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year Prize and her novel, The Element of Water (2001), was longlisted for the Booker Prize.

In her non-fiction, as in her fiction, Stevie Davies does not confine herself to one specialist area. She writes with authority and understanding on a range of subjects from the radical women of the English Revolution to the writings of Virginia Woolf; from Milton, Donne and Shakespeare to the Brontë Sisters. Unbridled Spirits:Women of the English Revolution (1998) won much critical acclaim. Her non-fiction work A Century of Troubles: England 1600-1700 (2001) accompanied the Channel 4 series of documentary films about the century.

In addition to writing, reviewing, and editing, Stevie Davies is also a lecturer and has featured in programmes for the BBC. Stevie’s first play: Unbridled Spirits was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2001.