Congratulations to Susan Stokes-Chapman, whose debut novel Pandora has been chosen as the Sunday Times Historical Fiction Book of the month!

“London in the 1790s is brought to colourful life in Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman. Dora Blake, the orphaned daughter of pioneering archaeologists, lives with her uncle Hezekiah, who sells antiquities of dubious provenance from a run-down shop. When the delivery of a mysterious, richly decorated Greek vase piques her curiosity, she enlists the help of aspiring antiquarian Edward Lawrence in discovering why Hezekiah so treasures his new acquisition. Their hopes are that studying the vase will further Dora’s plans to escape her brutal uncle’s control and realise Edward’s dreams of acceptance as a scholar. Instead, they are drawn into a labyrinth of deceit. In her debut novel, Stokes-Chapman creates a gripping narrative in which secrets from the past are slowly and ingeniously revealed.”