Welcome

Midge Gillies writes social history and biographies set in the late Victorian period and the first half of the twentieth century. Her most recent book tells the story of one of London’s most famous landmarks. Piccadilly: The Circus at the Heart of London was a Hatchards’ non-fiction book of the month and the TLS described it as “a dreamscape of modernity and desire . . . a magpie’s nest of a book”.

Many of Midge’s books feature the Second World War and its effects on ordinary people. The Barbed-Wire University explores what it was really like to be a Prisoner of War (POW). Waiting for Hitler describes the summer of 1940 and the threat of Nazi invasion. Army Wives combines Midge’s interests in women’s history and military conflict.

Midge is the author of two biographies. In Amy Johnson she writes about the fascinating life of the record-breaking pilot from Hull who disappeared over the Thames Estuary. Her biography of music hall performer, Marie Lloyd unearths the murky world of Victorian and Edwardian theatre and the East End of London.

Midge has taught creative writing for over 20 years and, until recently, was Academic Director at Cambridge University where she was also Director of its Master’s programme. She devised, and teaches, a memoir course for Granta, and is a mentor for Gold Dust. She has taught courses run by the Guardian/UEA and was a Royal Literary Fund Fellow for three years at Magdalene College, Cambridge.

Midge studied history at Cambridge and her PhD from the University of East Anglia focusses on the use of oral history in her writing. She is the author of two books on the theory and practice of creative writing: Writing Lives and Literary Non-Fiction.

Midge lives in Cambridgeshire with award-winning crime writer, Jim Kelly (also known as JG Kelly.) Their daughter, Rosa Kelly, is an artist.