Out of the Shadows released in the UK today, plus an online book launch, features in Lit Hub, inclusion in their Best Reviewed Books of the Week, and more

Out of the Shadows is released in the UK today, and is available from Waterstones, Blackwell’s, Amazon and elsewhere. I’m so happy that readers in my home country will now be able to read my book.

Over the past week-and-half, since publication in North America, I’ve had the chance to talk about the lives of the Fox sisters, Emma Hardinge Britten, Victoria Woodhull and Georgina Weldon in an online book launch hosted by Brookline Booksmith and chaired by my editor at Counterpoint Press, Jennifer Alton. A recording of the event should be made available soon.

I also had a piece published in Literary Hub on some of the difficulties facing the biographer who works with the accounts of unreliable witnesses, and was delighted to be included in their Book Marks list of the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. Today, Literary Hub also published an extract from Out of the Shadows, which deals with the remarkable rise on Wall Street of Victoria Woodhull.

And in the UK today, the University of East Anglia’s New Writing site published a different extract, which focuses on the first mysterious knockings that launched the extraordinary careers of the Fox sisters, Kate, Maggie and Leah.

Another thing that has made me happy has been the opportunity to give interviews or write features for some of my favourite book blogs.

Books By Women published a piece by me about the experience of working on a book in tandem with two pregnancies: ‘On Writing and Early Motherhood’.

I Stayed In with Linda Hill as part of her popular series on Linda’s Book Bag. This gave me the chance to share an image of myself ankle-deep in snow at the site of the Fox sisters’ former home, and to talk about my Great Aunt Jessie’s opera glasses.

I talked more about my research for Out of the Shadows in a Q&A on Deborah Kalb’s blog.

Jill’s Book Cafe included my ‘Five on Friday’ selections, featuring music that’s part of the soundtrack of my life, advice for my younger self, and things that few people know about me.

In addition to these pieces, I’m grateful to the many social media users who have been sharing images and thoughts on my book. Seeing these kinds of readers’ reactions to Out of the Shadows always makes my day.