Josephine Hammond

Josephine Hammond, part English, part Scottish and part Iraqi, was born in London but grew up in the Sudan and Nigeria. She went on to study French and Italian at University College London and taught languages for many years. She went on to do an MA in Creative Writing and published her first book in 2009. "Battle in Iraq" tells the story of her grandfather's experiences in the First World War in Iraq where he later married a local woman. Her book "Adelina Patti, Queen of Song" is a new biography of the star of nineteenth century opera, a celebrity before the word was coined. Told in a fictionalised style, it does not deviate from the facts but makes them lively and exciting. Since then she has written a collection of mini biographies of women who set off on their own to explore the deserts of the Middle East. Wilderness & Paradise tells the stories of eight intrepid women, their early lives and their motives in embarking on such an adventure.

She has now taken her first foray into fiction. Africa in my Heart will be published on 30th September 2022 by Austin McAulay. It is a romantic thriller set in Kenya with a background of the fight against poaching.