Paula Brackston (aka P. J. Brackston, P. J. Davy, and Mabli Roberts) is the New York Times bestselling^[1][2] author of The Witch's Daughter and other historical fantasy novels. She also writes the fantasy crime Brothers Grimm Mystery series under the pseudonym P. J. Brackston.^[3][4]

Life and writing career

Prior to solidifying her career as a fiction writer, Brackston worked as a groom on a racing yard, a travel agent, a secretary, an English teacher, and a goat herd.^[5] She attended Lancaster University, where she received her M.A. in creative writing. Brackston is also a visiting lecturer at the University of Wales, Newport.^[6]

She was born in Dorset, England, and grew up in Wales, where she now lives with her partner and their two children.^[7] She has lived in Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales, where The Winter Witch takes place, and spent six years in central London near Fitzroy Square, where The Midnight Witch is set in seventeenth-century England. Elizabeth Anne Hawksmith, the main character of The Witch's Daughter, lived in Brackston's hometown of Dorset.^[8][9][6]

Brackston's debut novel, The Witch’s Daughter,^[10][11][12] was originally published in February 2009 under the title The Book of Shadows and was intended as the first book in the proposed Shadow Chronicles series, followed by The Winter Witch.^[13][14][15] However, each of the novels are standalones that explore witches and their experiences through different times and settings.^[5] The Witch’s Daughter spawned a sequel titled The Return of the Witch in 2016. In Lamp Black, Wolf Grey, Brackston introduces Merlin as one of the main characters in the story.^[3]