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Lucy Ashe
The Model Patient, by Lucy Ashe
Lucy Ashe’s third historical thriller novel, exploring female autonomy, obsession, and the potentially perilous intimacy of psychotherapy. The Model Patient is both a love letter to psychotherapy’s healing potential and a critique of its ethical fragility.
The Model Patient is Lucy Ashe’s third historical thriller novel, exploring female autonomy, obsession, and the potentially perilous intimacy of psychotherapy. Set in 1960s London, this novel follows Evelyn Westbrook, a former model turned increasingly unfulfilled...
Sex, Psychoanalysis, and the Big Freeze of 1963
1963 acts as a pivot in the author’s new novel, one which brings into focus the strain between the previous decade’s conservatism and the approach of both female freedom and societal change, all against the backdrop of wintry weather.
Philip Larkin in his poem Annus Mirabilis highlighted the year 1963 as a time of momentous transition. The end of the Lady Chatterley ban, the rise of The Beatles, the beginnings of the sexual revolution, all seductive ingredients for me, an author writing a novel...
Historical Heroes: Ninette de Valois
British ballet has this Irish born diva to be thankful for since she established dance in the inter-war period and gave choreography in the country its distinctive flavour.
Dame Ninette de Valois was an ever-present figure throughout my years training at the Royal Ballet School, her name repeated in ballet studios, her influence permeating every rehearsal room. I saw her only once, at a celebration of her 100th birthday at the Royal...
Fiction Book of the Month: Lucy Ashe on Clara & Olivia
Author Lucy Ashe shares her journey from ballet to writing, and the inspiration behind her debut novel Clara & Olivia.
Lucy, Clara & Olivia was your debut novel. Was the idea for the book long in gestation? While Clara & Olivia is my first published novel, I did write two novels in the twenties that I never managed to get published. I think of these as my practice novels, my...
British Ballet
Ballet and Britain’s relationship is a relatively recent one, and largely due to one Irish-born woman, Ninette de Valois
British Ballet Ever since I was a teenager training at The Royal Ballet School, I have been fascinated by dance history. Alongside daily ballet classes and academic lessons, we studied the development of ballet, how it emerged from the court dances of the Italian...
Sugar Plum
Set during the Second World War, the story combines historical details about the challenges of putting on ballet performances in London during the war, with a fictional tale where magic and reality intermingle during a production of Casse Noisette.
When rehearsals began for Casse Noisette, Theodore Frost couldn’t help thinking that Marie le Sansonnet would be a much better Mouse King than Sugar Plum Fairy. All that rushing around, thinking herself royalty, demanding hot drinks sweetened with sugar that certainly...
Episode 131
Lucy Ashe
Lucy Ashe is an author of historical, psychological, and crime novels. Her debut novel, Clara & Olivia, was published in 2023 by Magpie, Oneworld Publications (UK), and was entitled The Dance of the Dolls (Union Square & Co) in the US. It was shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger and described by Publishers Weekly as 'a fiercely memorable debut from a writer to watch.' Her second novel, The Sleeping Beauties, was published in 2024 and her third novel, The Model Patient, in April 2026.
Books Click on any of the books covers below to either buy or get more information on Amazon Articles Click on the links below to read the full article[dpdfg_filtergrid custom_query="advanced" multiple_cpt="post,book_reviews" use_taxonomy_terms="on"...
Lucy Ashe
The author discusses her novels, inspiration and favourite moments of history.
Lucy Ashe, what prompted you to choose the period that you wrote your first book in? I knew I wanted my novel to be set at a time of new beginnings for British Ballet, and the early 1930s was an important transitional time. Ninette de Valois founded the Vic-Wells...