Caitlin Davies, author of 'Private Inquiries: The Secret History of Female Sleuths' - Narrative Nonfiction author discusses remembering how tough novels are, one book inspiring the next, and strange writing advice
Writer's Routine
Dan Simpson
4.9 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 5 June 2025
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Caitlin Davies has always wanted to be a writer. It took her a long time to admit it to herself, let alone voice it aloud. She started writing as a journalist, covering stories across Europe and Africa, and now, finally, is a published author. She writes widely, switching genres and styles, releasing 6 novels and 8 narrative nonfiction books along the way. Caitlin tends to be inspired by forgotten women from history, and water.
Her most recent book is 'Private Inquiries: The Secret History of Female Sleuths'. It was partly inspired by 'Queens of the Underworld' and 'Bad Girls', two books that told a history of crime from the other side of the coin - from the crooks. Caitlin has also published books about swimming in the Thames River, the Ponds on Hampstead Heath, and the history of Camden Lock.
To make time to write, Caitlin has fingers in many different creative earning pies - occasionally teaching, designing and decorating sea shells for local businesses. We discuss how all this feeds into inspiration for her books.
You can hear whether, as her writing seems so varied and eclectic, there is any grand plan for where it'll take her, also why she wnet back to school for reserach, and why she forgets how tricky it is writing fiction after a time away.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, welcome along to a brand new episode of writer's routine. |
| 0:12.2 | This week we're chatting to Caitlin Davies, who has written a bit of everything, really, publishing six novels, eight narrative non-fiction books. |
| 0:25.3 | She tends to be inspired by forgotten women across history. |
| 0:30.1 | And recently, that's been the crooks and then the women who also caught them. |
| 0:37.1 | We talk about the moment that she returns to fiction after a time away and finds it's much trickier than she remembered. |
| 0:40.5 | Nobody sort of shows you how to do it. And so there are times when I'll stop and I'll think, |
| 0:43.5 | is this how I've done it before? |
| 0:45.3 | Is it always this difficult? |
| 0:47.6 | And I actually will sometimes go back into old folders and old emails |
| 0:52.4 | just to work out how long it took me to do something. |
| 0:55.0 | Also, you can hear some of the stranger bits of writing advice that she's had. |
| 0:59.0 | You do carry it with you everywhere, don't you? |
| 1:02.0 | I mean, I remember once reading that if you were struggling with a particular character, |
| 1:07.0 | you know, write their name and put it under your pillow. |
| 1:14.2 | And at night, somehow, you will decide. |
| 1:17.3 | And I did that once and had the most awful nightmares. |
| 1:20.2 | And it didn't help me at all. |
| 1:23.2 | It's on the way with Caitlin Davies in a brand new writer's routine. Music Yes, welcome along. |
| 1:33.1 | My name's Dan Simpson. |
| 1:34.1 | This is Writers Routine. |
| 1:35.1 | It's a show where we take a look inside an author's working day. |
| 1:39.1 | And you can take a look inside the makings of the podcast, really, by subscribing to our newsletter over on our |
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