Hannah Byron

“Ever since I could hold a pen, I’ve written stories and poems, and I’ll write till my dying day.”

Hannah Byron is the pen name of Hannah Ferguson. Hannah was born in Paris, the City of Light, in 1956 and is of English/Irish/Scottish/Dutch descent. She currently resides in The Netherlands. Next to her writing career, Hannah is (still) a part-time translator for a Dutch university.

Byron became a published author under her own name in 2011 but rebranded to Historical Fiction in 2020. A lifelong fascination for history, heroines, and high stakes made the jump from contemporary romance to historical fiction a natural move. Byron’s books are sprinkled with a generous scoop of romance and suspense. She attempts to write in such a way that her stories are also easily accessible to readers who traditionally wouldn’t pick up a histfic novel because they’re afraid it’s stuffy and boring. Though Byron work is slower paced than a contemporary novel, she compares it to the difference between fast food and slow food. Both taste good at their own moments and variety is the spice of live.

Byron focuses on the period from the Victorian Era to the Baby Boomers, which is her own generation. So roughly the timespan from 1850 to 1960. It’s the most fascinating period of history because in these hundred years humanity adapted from living in local, manual-labor communities to finding themselves in a global, machine-driven society; the power of the Church crumbled, as did the male stronghold against the growing awareness of women. The two World Wars have much to answer for shoving aside what had prevailed for centuries. Byron’s Resistance Girl Series is based women’s emancipation during the World Wars.

Combining research with creating fictional stories about ordinary women who do extraordinary things is a daily thrill for Byron, who herself comes from a line of strong women. Her Grace Family Saga is dedicated to Hannah’s own maternal descent.

Being of European descent, she concentrates mostly on the countries of her heritage, creating stories from a time when life was perhaps less rushed but certainly as complicated.