Ellen Alpsten
Ellen Alpsten is an international best--selling author and script-writer. She was born and raised in the Kenyan highlands. Upon graduating from the 'Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris', she worked as a News-Anchor for Bloomberg TV London and as a journalist for international publications such as the German 'FAZ', Vogue, Standpoint, and CN Traveller.
Ellen's debut novel, Tsarina, the reimagining the journey of Catherine I of Russia from lowly birth and work in servitude to becoming the second wife of Peter the Great, has been translated into 20+ languages. The second book in the quartet, The Tsarina's Daughter, has now been published.
Her third book, The Last Princess, the first book in a new trilogy, is the re-telling of 1066 and Gytha Godwinson, daughter of Harold, last Anglo-Saxon king of England.
Ellen lives in London with her husband, three sons, and a moody fox red Labrador-Lady.
From Fact to Fiction
Historical Novelist Ellen Alpsten discusses the journey of history's hidden heroines, who inspire her. What does it take to translate a full-blooded real life packed with stringent facts to fearless writing on the page, creating captivating fiction? Hear about framework and images, voice, plotting and characterisation, as much as embracing historical determinism: if the end is known, the surprise must still be complete.'