Melanie Clegg

A pink haired art history graduate, casual historian, GIN taster, lapsed goth, failed Parisienne, Versailles obsessive, proud Ripperologist, Georgette Heyer fanatic and Victorian Prostitute re-enactor who lives in the deepest darkest west country with her family but would rather be in either Whitechapel or Paris.

Meticulously researched and elegantly crafted,'The Secret Diary of a Princess' is her first novel and was born from a desire to tell the story of Marie Antoinette from an unusual and yet still fascinating angle, focusing on her early life at the Viennese court, the machinations behind her betrothal to the Dauphin Louis and then finally her initial impressions of her new home, Versailles. All told by Marie Antoinette herself as she grows from an enchanting, wilful child into a poised and beautiful young woman.

Melanie's second book, 'Blood Sisters', a sweeping and dramatic saga set during the turbulent years of the French Revolution follows the fortunes of a trio of aristocratic sisters who are caught up in the Revolution while trying to discover the truth about their past.

Her third novel, 'Before The Storm' is an epic tale of love, ambition and betrayal set in eighteenth century London and Paris and based on The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton.

Melanie is currently working on a book about being a 1950s housewife, a series of detective novels starring the mother of Sherlock Holmes and also a novel about Charles II's youngest sister, Henrietta Anne.

Her popular Madame Guillotine blog is a whimsical mishmash of history, art, writing, day dreams and iniquity.