Clare Whitfield is an English historical novelist. She was born Clare Riley in 1978 and grew up on the St Helier estate in Morden, South London. Her debut novel, People of Abandoned Character (2020), won the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award. Her third novel, Poor Girls (2024), was shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger.
Clare Whitfield was born the youngest of four children. Her family later moved to Sutton. She studied dance and graduated with a BA in Visual and Performing Arts from Middlesex University. She began her career in publishing and marketing. In her thirties, she completed an MA in Creative and Critical Writing at the University of Winchester.
In 2019, she signed her first publishing deal with Head of Zeus, a Bloomsbury Books imprint. Her debut, People of Abandoned Character, was published in 2020. The Gothic novel follows Victorian trainee nurse Susannah, who begins to suspect her husband is Jack the Ripper. The book won the 2021 Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award and was also shortlisted for the Debut Crown at the Historical Writers Association Awards.
Her second novel, The Gone and the Forgotten, was published by Head of Zeus in 2022. Set in 1993, Shetland explores themes of family secrets. It was inspired by Whitfield's own discovery that her father was the product of an affair between her paternal grandmother and a Canadian soldier.
In October 2022, Whitfield signed two further books with Head of Zeus. The first was Poor Girls, published in 2024. The novel was shortlisted for the Historical Dagger at the 2025 Crime Writers' Association Awards.
Poor Girls is set in London in 1922 and follows twenty-year-old Eleanor Mackridge. Eleanor is horrified by the future mapped out for her: to serve the upper classes or find a man to marry. During the war, she had proved useful working in a munitions factory, handling explosives. But now society is returning to normal, and women are being put back in their place.
Eleanor has never paid attention to what society expects of her. When she crosses paths with a member of the notorious female-led gang, the Forty Elephants, she is in awe. These are bold women who wear diamonds and fur, drink champagne and gin, and take what they want without asking. Eleanor sees a new future for herself. She can serve, marry or steal.
She changes her name to Nell and moves to London, where she is assigned to a cell of four gang members who live and work together. She begins her education in the art of theft. She learns how to steal expensive furs and jewels from London's grandest department stores. She learns how to conceal her loot in hidden pockets and, most importantly, how to avoid being arrested.
The Forty Elephants were a real-life crime syndicate. The gang operated in London and the south coast during the 1920s. The name comes from the Elephant and Castle area of London, where they were based. The gang leader Alice Diamond, known as Queen Alice, was a real person. Eleanor Mackridge is a fictional character. Whitfield researched the gang extensively and was intrigued by how little known they were compared to male criminals like the Krays or Al Capone.
Clare Whitfield lives in Southampton with her husband, Duncan Whitfield, a tattoo artist. They have one daughter. In 2016, she was diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease. After her Glass Bell Award win, she sought an autism spectrum assessment.
Photo credit: clarewhitfieldbooks.com
