Emily Howes is the award-winning author of The Painter's Daughters. She has worked as a storyteller, theatre maker, performer, writer and director in stage, television and radio. In addition to writing fiction, Emily has a Masters in Existential Psychotherapy and works as a psychotherapist in private practice. She lives in London with her children.
Mrs Dickens has my whole heart. Will undoubtedly be one of my books of the year, with its unflinching portrait of a marriage unravelling, and the women who surround Charles Dickens. I was enthralled -- Jennie Godfrey A beautiful, heartbreaking, immersive novel, which brings a woman's silenced story back to vivid, irrepressible life. A story about the cost of male ambition, and the courage it takes for a woman to reclaim her own narrative. Howes' distinctive voice is so warm, so relatable, so companionable; readers will fall in love with Kate, or ""Mrs. Dickens"" -- RoisÃn O'Donnell Powerful, tender and evocative, Mrs Dickens is a deeply thoughtful contribution to our understanding of the life of Catherine Dickens. Emily Howes writes with great skill, plucking at the truth without flinching and exploring topics that are as relevant today as they were in the 1800s, from the manipulation of women by the men they love, to the ill treatment of mothers in society. She captures the complexities of their famous marriage, and the harsh realities of being married to a genius, with such depth . . . An impressive follow-up to her brilliant debut The Painter's Daughters, Emily Howes is a class act. I will be recommending to everyone! -- Harriet Constable How can you hope to tell your truth when you're up against the greatest fiction-writer of the nineteenth century? Mrs Dickens rescues the novelist's despised wife from the margins of her husband's story and makes her the heroine of her own -- Helena Kelly Mrs Dickens tells the story of Charles Dickens' beleaguered bride, Kate. She bore ten children, travelled around the world with her husband, and still couldn't live up to the Victorian ideal of the Angel in the Home. Soon, their family is unravelling in a way that seems, well, Dickensian. Reimagining the life of a woman lost to history, this is a book just begging for screen rights * Tatler, The 14 Buzziest Books of 2026 *