The Ghost Ship—which follows The Burning Chambers and The City of Tears—is described by the publisher as “an epic tale of courageous women battling to survive in a man’s world, of vengeance and breathtaking peril on the high seas, of long-buried family secrets and a love story spanning three generations”. This ship is what leads Louise to her destiny and, eventually, her infamous legacy. Her quest to break the rules is heart-pounding and vibrant and taking the journey with Louise ,and following her adventure, is everything you could want in a pirate story. I liked the two main characters and was invested in their romance. For that reason I was tempted to rate the story higher, as Louise and Gilles were amazing. I suspect if they'd appeared in a story not connected with any previous impressions, I'd have been invested in the whole tale more. Unfortunately, because I went into this book with the previous ones in mind, approach the book with the right expectations and suspend disbelief. If I'd known what kind of story I was getting into, I would have taken the multiple accidental murders, unlikely high-seas ventures and diverse slave-hunters at face value and just accepted them. Because I was anticipating a more grounded narrative, I was constantly thinking about the story as a story rather than being immersed in it.

But the ship's crew hides a secret, and the stakes could not be higher. The bravest among them are not who they seem: if arrested, they will hang for their alleged crimes. Can they survive their journey and escape their fate? I wasn’t sure I was going to do something like that,” she says of the book, “but I was asked to and then I realised that it was about the invisibility of carers, and therefore there was a sense of a responsibility. If you have any sort of platform and you are a carer you should be saying, I’m one too, because we are everywhere hidden in plain sight.” Yes, she was strong, brave, but Mosse didn’t let Louise lose her femininity, a sense of vulnerability, the occasional lapse in confidence. It was her right hand person, her lover, Gilles, who Mosse used beautifully to bring out Louise’s more genteel side.The Ghost Ship is sad, glorious, terrifying and wonderful — a must read if you enjoy historical fiction. This is the third in the Huguenot diaspora series, the Joubert Family Chronicles, and I loved being immersed once again in Minou and Piet’s family, this time in their granddaughter, Louise’s, exploits in the 1600s. This is an epic tale that takes readers from Europe to Las Islas Afortunadas and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and finally to the Cape of Good Hope. Much of the story takes place on the high seas It is a sweeping adventure, full of intrigue. It’s a story of murder and mayhem, inheritances and false accusations, piracy and ghost ships and the hideous machinations of evil men. It’s also a wonderful love story. Anthology of World War I Literature for Children (essay – edited by Michael Morpurgo, Jonathan Cape, 2014) In her troubled sleep, Louise shifts. Her long brown hair tangles around her throat like a noose. The dream is disconcerting. It is painful to remember how innocent she was, how proud. Holding her grandfather’s hand as they walked over the canals of Amsterdam, knowing her beloved mother would be home the next day.

That rare thing, a novel with vast scope and ambition, brilliantly achieved, but also deeply personal, finely detailed and nuanced. I was utterly immersed in this spell-binding story - Rosamund Lupton on The City of Tears Mosse has, for many years, been a full-throated advocate for the power of books and reading to provide fulfilment, entertainment and education. Perhaps her greatest achievement beyond her own fiction is her creation, in 1996, of what is now the Women’s Prize for Fiction; its winners have included the very first, the late Helen Dunmore, Carol Shields, Zadie Smith, Eimear McBride and the recently victorious – and two-time winner – Barbara Kingsolver. Now, with Mosse as founder director, it has just launched its inaugural nonfiction prize, as a response to research showing that women who write nonfiction are less likely to be reviewed, to be shortlisted or win prizes, than their male counterparts. The work of ensuring that women writers’ work is judged on a level playing field continues.Fifty Shades of Feminism (essay – edited by Lisa Appignanesi, Rachel Holmes & Susie Orbach, Virago, 2013) Then, as always, the dream darkens. Always the same shift from exhilaration to despair. The sailors laughing when she says that, one day, she will be the captain of a ship. Not understanding why everyone is laughing, she feels humiliated. Her grandfather bends down to explain that girls cannot go to sea, though there is much they can do on dry land. I was so excited to be granted the third book in this wonderful series which traces the history of The Huguenot Reydon-Joubert family in 17th Century Europe. Writer Kate Mosse, founder of the Women's Prize for Fiction, and actor Stanley Tucci attend the 2023 winner's ceremony at Bedford Square Gardens, London on June 14th. Photograph: Ian West/PA Wire.