Author shortlisted for Wolfson History Prize
A history of the women who brought Victorian criminals to account, and how they became a cultural sensation, has been shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize.
The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective by St John’s alumna Professor Sara Lodge (1989) brings to life these forgotten women who went undercover to catch thieves and were employed by police to search female suspects. She reveals that before Sherlock Holmes ever brushed off his deerstalker, real-life female detectives were investigating crime in Victorian England – and inspiring fictional counterparts on the stage and in print.
The Wolfson History Prize is the most valuable history writing prize in the UK, awarding the winner £50,000 and each of the five shortlisted authors £5,000. Previous winners have included Antonia Fraser, Eric Hobsbawm, Halik Kochanski, Simon Schama, Amanda Vickery, Antony Beevor, Joanna Bourke, Christopher Bayly and Clare Jackson.
Professor Lodge is a Scottish writer, academic and broadcaster who teaches at the University of St Andrews. She specialises in 19th-century literature and culture. The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective is her fourth book. She said: “It’s an incredible honour. I am grateful, humbled and astonished. The news has made me feel several inches taller.
“I think the greatest gift of winning would be the feeling that I was joining a constellation of writers whom I admire so profoundly. Given that non-fiction by women statistically sometimes struggles to be seen (in 2022, only a third of the ‘top 500’ non-fiction titles were by women), I’d also be thrilled that a book about women’s history was being honoured in this way.”
The other five books shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize 2025 are:
– Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age by Eleanor Barraclough (Profile Books)
– The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV by Helen Castor (Allen Lane)
– Multicultural Britain: A People’s History by Kieran Connell (Hurst Publishing)
– Survivors: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the Atlantic Slave Trade by Hannah Durkin (William Collins)
– The Gravity of Feathers: Fame, Fortune and the Story of St Kilda by Andrew Fleming (Birlinn)
The Prize’s judges said of the book: “Offering fresh insight into gender and policing in Victorian Britain, this book provides an innovative exploration of the roles of women working in policing and private agencies, elegantly set alongside their fictional counterparts.”
The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective, by Professor Sara Lodge, is published by Yale University Press. There is a 50% discount in November with the code FIFTY.