Charlotte Betts

When I finished writing The Apothecary’s Daughter I couldn’t free my mind of the picture of the Great Fire of London sweeping through the city and destroying everything in its path. Thousands of people’s lives were changed forever and every one of them would have a different story to tell. Katherine Finche, the spice merchant’s…

I was recently invited to write a post for the Hoydens and Firebrands website, which is full of fascinating articles about life in the seventeenth century. I chose to write about Nicholas Barbon, a property speculator out to make his fortune immediately after the Great Fire of London. He was the archetypal property developer; the…

People often ask me what inspired me to write The Apothecary’s Daughter. How it began. People often ask, ‘Where do your ideas come from?’, as if there is a particular store where you can go to pick up a bargain. It’s true that sometimes a dazzling idea for a new novel pops into my head…

The Apothecary’s Daughter – Book Club questions for discussion.

If only they’d had antibiotics in the seventeenth century, the course of Susannah’s life in The Apothecary’s Daughter would have been very different.