Flora Johnston
Flora Johnston’s love of Scotland’s history began at St Andrews University and has included working at the National Museum of Scotland and a career in heritage interpretation, as well as writing several non-fiction books. Her debut novel What You Call Free (Ringwood Publishing, 2012) was described by James Robertson as ‘historical fiction of the highest quality’. Set in lowland Scotland in 1687, it’s the story of two real historical women and their struggle for freedom in an oppressive and divided society. She is now putting the finishing touches to her second novel The Paris Peacekeepers which tells the stories of three Scots and their struggle to rebuild their lives after the trauma of war. It takes place against the backdrop of negotiations for the Treaty of Versailles, as international politicians attempt to rebuild the world they have shattered. It also explores the fate of the Scottish rugby team, swept up in war fever and mown down in battle, and the untold story of their captain scorned as a conscientious objector. The novel was in part inspired by letters written by the author’s great aunt during her time as a typist in Paris at the Peace Conference.
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Flora is represented at jenny Brown Associates by Jenny Brown. For all enquiries, contact jenny@jennybrownassociates.com
Books by Flora
The Endeavour of Elsie Mackay
Allison & Busby, January 2025
1927. Flight fever is running rampant and whether they are called trailblazers or reckless fools, the daring flyers are all anyone can talk about. And now the Honourable Miss Elsie Mackay, glamorous former film star and regular name in gossip columns, has a new ambition – to be the first woman to fly the Atlantic.
Stella Campbell once felt at the heart of world events. As a typist at the Paris Peace Conference, she had helped forge peace across Europe. But a decade on, post-war hopes are frayed and Stella’s sense of self has been worn away by marriage and motherhood until she’s not sure what remains.
In recent years, Stella’s sister Corran has been wrapped up in her books and academic career, determinedly single, or so it seems. But when the secrets she has been carefully guarding start to emerge, will she be able to step beyond the constraints of her sex?
Three women, a fearless aviatrix, a jaded wife and a secretive academic strain to reach for their dreams on the cusp of an uncertain future.
The Paris Peacemakers
Allison & Busby, April 2024
Paris, 1919. Will the brittle pieces of Europe ever fit together again?
As the fragile negotiations of the international Peace Conference get underway, typist Stella Rutherford throws herself into her work and the mixture of glamour and devastation the City of Light reveals. Anything to escape the grief coming in waves for her beloved brother Jack.
Her sister Corran is about to put her academic career to use among the troops in France, a chance to see what the experience was like for countless men, including her fiancé Rob.
Rob Campbell, profoundly changed by his time as a surgeon on the front line, has had little chance to lift his head from the incessant grind of the injured, dying and dead. If he did the ghosts of his teammates, the Scottish rugby players who followed the same path into hell, would surely be waiting for him.
The Paris Peacemakers follows three Scots as they attempt to pick up the pieces of their lives while the fabric of Europe is stitched together for good or ill