Shaping the Future with Lessons from the Past

Part of Leeds Lit Fest 2026. See the full programme at https://www.leedslitfest.co.uk/

Join Northodox Press authors Carolyn Kirby, A.D Bergin, Carolyn O'Brien, Rachel Canwell and Rue Baldry for a relaxed and entertaining discussion about the nature of northern based historical fiction. With a plethora of awards lists attached to their names, including the HWA Debut Crown, Crimefest/The Specsavers Award, The Bridport Prize and The First Novel Prize, their books tackle tough topics such as class, gender and sexuality in novels with a distinctly northern twang and gripping, thought-provoking plots. While these novels look to the past, their themes are still (at times frighteningly) relevant today. A panel not to be missed!

A. D. Bergin was born in Northumberland and raised on Tyneside. He graduated from Cambridge University with a first class degree in History, since when he has worked as an archaeologist, historian, researcher, postman, roofer, builder and barman. The Wicked of the Earth is his first published work of fiction and was shortlisted for HWA Debut Crown in 2025.

Rachel Canwell is an author who, having grown up in the Fens, has lived and worked in Cumbria for over twenty years. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies. Her collection of flash fiction Oh I Do Like to Be was published in 2022 and her novella-in-flash Magpie Moon in 2023. Published in February 2026, Paper Sisters is her first novel.

Carolyn O'Brien was born in Manchester. She read English at Cambridge University before qualifying as a solicitor. Her writing has a strong sense of the north-west of England and its radical past, as illustrated by her first novel The Song of Peterloo which was published to coincide with the bicentenary of the Peterloo Massacre. Her second novel Rose & Renzo is out in May 2026. She lives near Manchester with her family.

Carolyn Kirby is the author of three novels. The Conviction of Cora Burns was listed for prizes from the Historical Writers' Association and the Crimefest/Specsavers Award, and When We Fall was chosen by the Times and Sunday Times as one of the best novels of 2020. Her latest novel Ravenglass was published by Northodox Press in 2025. Cumbria Life magazine called it "...a lavish and fully realised story in a living and breathing Georgian Cumbria." Carolyn was a judge for the 2025 Gold Crown Award for historical fiction, and she helps to run Hilda's Crime Fiction Weekend, Oxford's world-renowned festival of crime-writing.

Rue Baldry has a BA in English Literature from York University and an MA in Literature with Creative Writing from Leeds University. She still lives in York, where she met her husband and they raised their five children. In 2015 she was a Jerwood/Arvon mentee, in 2017, the The Bridge Awards/ Moniack Mhor Emerging Writer, and in 2021, a Women's Prize Discoveries longlistee. Her novel, Dwell, won the 2024 First Novel Prize. Other work of hers has won the 2023 Canada and Europe region of the Commonwealth Prize, come second in the Yeovil Prize, been longlisted for the BBC NSSA, and placed in the Caledonian, Bridport, Reader Berlin, First Page, Odd Voice Out, Retreat West, and Flash 500 competitions.