Joanna Barnden (née Gibb; born 1972)"Statutory registers: Births", Scotland's People. Retrieved 27 December 2024. is a British author of historical fiction who writes as Anna Stuart for her World War II novels and Joanna Courtney for novels set in other periods (Courtney is Barnden's middle name).
Biography Born Joanna Gibb in St Andrews, Scotland,Joanna Barnden, Running Against the Tide (London: Robert Hale, 2013), note on the author. Barnden attended Loughborough High School from Year 9. She studied English literature at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.
After graduating, Barnden worked as a factory planner and started a family, initially writing only in her spare time. Her first short story was published in The People's Friend around 2001 and she went on to publish more than two hundred short stories in women's magazines before turning her attention to long-form fiction. For a time around 2013 and 2014 she was a creative writing tutor at the Open University.
Her work has been translated into several languages, including French, German, Hungarian, Italian and Spanish, and she has enjoyed considerable success beyond the anglosphere. For example, the French translation of The Midwife of Auschwitz (La Sage-femme d'Auschwitz) had sold over half a million copies by the end of 2024. Grand format (City Editions) and pocket format (J'ai lu) combined.
Barnden lives in Kirk Langley with her husband Stuart. They have two children.
Publications
As Joanna Barnden 2013 : Running Against the Tide (Robert Hale) — London's docklands in the early nineteenth century
As Joanna Courtney Series: Queens of the Conquest 2015 : The Chosen Queen (Macmillan) — Edith of Mercia 2016 : The Constant Queen (Macmillan) — Elizaveta of Kiev 2017 : The Conqueror's Queen (Macmillan) — Mathilda of Flanders
Series: Shakespeare's Queens 2018 : Blood Queen (Piatkus) — Lady Macbeth 2019 : Fire Queen (Piatkus) — Ophelia 2020 : Iron Queen (Piatkus) — Cordelia
Series: Women of the Ancient World 2023 : Cleopatra and Julius (Piatkus) — the Egyptian queen and the Roman general 2023 : Salome (Piatkus) — the Jewish princess 2026 : Mary of Magdala (Piatkus) — the disciple of Jesus
Other works 2015 : The Christmas Court, novella (Pan Books) — a seasonal tale set in the Queens of the Conquest universe
As Anna Stuart
Series: World War II Remembered Three novels in which a young woman of today connects with a woman who lived through the Second World War. 2021 : The Berlin Zookeeper (Bookouture) 2021 : The Secret Diary (Bookouture) 2021 : A Letter from Pearl Harbor (Bookouture)
Series: Women of War 2022 : The Midwife of Auschwitz (Bookouture) — freely inspired by the experience of Stanisława Leszczyńska 2023 : The Midwife of Berlin (Bookouture) — sequel focused on the fictitious assistant Ester Pasternak 2024 : The War Orphan (Bookouture) — partly inspired by the work of Alice Goldberger (1897–1986)Ruby Kwartz, "Alice Goldberger", '45 Aid Society. Accessed 12 March 2025. 2024 : The Resistance Sisters (Bookouture) 2024 : The Secret Message (Bookouture) 2026 : The Last Baby in Auschwitz (Bookouture) 2026 : The Children on the Train (Bookouture)
Series: The Bletchley Park Girls 2022 : The Bletchley Girls (Bookouture) 2023 : Code Name Elodie (Bookouture)
Series: Inspirational WW2 Stories 2025 : The English Wife (Bookouture) — freely inspired by the experience of Clementine Churchill 2025 : The President’s Wife (Bookouture) — freely inspired by the experience of Eleanor Roosevelt
Contemporary fiction 2019 : Bonnie and Stan (Trapeze) 2020 : Four Minutes to Save a Life (Trapeze)
References
External links Joanna Courtney website Anna Stuart website