Deborah E Wilson

Deborah E Wilson lives near Worksop, Nottinghamshire.

Her love of literature has been life-long but was truly ignited at The University of Lincoln, where she obtained First Class Honours in English. Her degree encouraged an interest in works from a broad range of historical periods, including Gothic Literature, which became her passion.

She moved on to a career in teaching, and recently project management, but has always been pulled by a desire to write her own prose and poetry. Her pastimes include singing, playing the piano, painting and crafting.

An Artist’s Muse ~ her debut novel, even features some of her own ink illustrations.

Nineteenth-century London. Clara Breslin is earning her keep in her brother’s apothecary. She isn’t interested in married life and spends her free time painting portraits of strangers who walk by her window. Her study is infuriatingly unexceptional – until she meets Matthias Tarasso, an actor. Watching him perform, she finds herself captivated. Matthias becomes a dominant influence over her and his presence helps Clara create true masterpieces. But an unseen evil is feeding on the tragedy that blights London’s streets and dwellings.

Clara suffers from horrific nightmares involving disease and fatality when customers of the apothecary grow ill from its remedies. After a suspicious death, Matthias becomes the main suspect. But who is really causing death, fatality and tragedy? Is it Matthias? Or Clara? Perhaps the truth behind the crime is far more insidious and cruel than anyone could have imagined…

The Malediction of Lucida Grey

This is no typical Georgian novel; Lucida Grey is no Austen heroine. She is dark and troubled, playing out the role she is meant to play with difficulty, with scorn for the suitors who try to tame her. In rural England, Lucida Grey is the heiress of a vast estate and the palatial Hedworth Hall.

You will discover Lucida’s world through her account of events. Beware, reader: she holds a terrible secret, and is wrestling with the weight of her guilt. In an era when witchcraft was thought to have been ‘debunked’, this novel creates a new perspective: something inexplicable by science or nature – a new ‘monster’ for the Gothic genre.

You can find out more about Deborah and her writing via:

Deborah will be joining us at the second in-person festival on 4th Oct 2026, when we’ll be talking about the nuts and bolts of publishing.