Naomi Clifford focuses on historical subjects, drawing out long-forgotten true-life stories from the archives. Her latest book, The Murder of Mary Ashford: The Crime That Changed English Legal History (2018), published by Pen and Sword, looks at a notorious case of rape-murder which involved the last legal challenge to hand-to-hand combat and, through a discovery in the archives, finally positively identifies the perpetrator of the crime. The Disappearance of Maria Glenn (2016) relates the rollercoaster fortunes of a teenage heiress stolen from her family in 1817 and explores the world of elopement and abduction and Women and the Gallows 1797-1837 (2017) tells the stories of 131 women who were hanged.
Naomi has long experience in journalism and online projects but, as she says, her first love is libraries and archives. “I get a buzz out of just being there amongst the original sources – and when I start delving into the archives I feel like a detective on a case.” She has previously written under the name Naomi Lourie Klein.
