Lesley McDowellLesley McDowell's debut novel The Picnic came out in 2007. In 2010 she published Between the Sheets: The Literary Liaisons of Nine 20th-Century Women Writers, which was shortlisted for the non-fiction prize at the 2011 Scottish Book Awads. Her second novel Unfashioned Creatures, about Mary Shelley's Scottish childhood friend, was published in 2013. Lesley was a literary critic for the Herald, Scotsman, Independent, TLS and others. She has a PhD on the work of James Joyce and has won three Creative Scotland writers' bursaries. Her third novel, Clairmont, is a historical retelling of the story of Lord Byron and the Shelleys from the perspective of his secret muse, Claire Clairmont. Love and Other Poisons is her fourth novel. Read More Read Less