Antonia Hodgson

Antonia Hodgson is a British historical crime writer and publishing executive whose novels have won major awards and brought Georgian London to vivid, raucous life. Born and raised in Derby, she studied English at the University of Leeds and went on to build a distinguished career in publishing, working as an editor and publisher at Hodder & Stoughton and Little, Brown. Her debut novel The Devil in the Marshalsea, set in the debtors' prison of 1720s London, won the CWA Historical Dagger in 2014 and was shortlisted for multiple other awards. The novel introduced readers to Tom Hawkins, a charming, flawed protagonist who must solve a murder to survive his imprisonment. The series continues with The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins and A Death at Fountains Abbey, each delivering intricate plotting, dark wit, and a richly detailed portrait of eighteenth-century England. Hodgson's dual career as both a novelist and a senior figure in publishing gives her an unusual perspective on storytelling. Her historical fiction is praised for its authenticity, its gallows humour, and its refusal to sanitise the past. Her audiobooks and books transport listeners and readers to a London that is dangerous, corrupt, and thrilling in equal measure.