Who the hell is Helen Gaskell (writer)?

Apart from an author extraordinaire, you mean?

What an excellent question. And who, any of us, do not at some point ask this question? What does it even mean to be alive, never mind to live?

In the event you’re not here to ponder deep philosophical questions such as these and are merely wondering who wrote The Regency Switch and is currently writing Book 2 (tbc), here’s a brief overview of Helen Gaskell (writer).

If you’ve come here looking for Helen Gaskell (content designer), that’s another story. The best UK government content design you’ll find; day rates are exceptionally reasonable; always open to approach by reputable recruitment agencies, etc.

But yes, back to Helen Gaskell (writer).

A really huge picture of Helen Gaskell

For a start, Helen’s not a fan of writing about herself in the third person. She’s written enough biographies already, so let’s open the floor up to the woman herself.

Hi. I live in Manchester, much like the OG Mrs Gaskell, and married into the Gaskell family. In fact my full name is Mrs H. N. Elizabeth Gaskell. I swear to god I didn’t do this on purpose. It is a very odd coincidence. I mean, obviously I married my husband on purpose. But his surname and my love of historical romantic fiction are completely coincidental.

Like many, if not most, humans, I have been reading and writing from a young age. I was born in Grimsby, which was very unfortunate, but someone has to be born in Grimsby after all. I then grew up in Lincolnshire, which is far less flat than some people would have you believe. Don’t go telling people though, or it’ll get all busy and honestly the roads aren’t made for any kind of traffic at all.

I eventually got the chance to escape Lincolnshire and unequivocally threw it in the face of the establishment, completing a journalism degree at the University of Lincoln. I then doubled down on this iniquity by getting a Masters degree in Radio Journalism at Nottingham Trent University, another ex-polytechnic a few miles down the road.

Finally, though, I found myself ready to flee the wilderness, and went to London to work for the BBC World Service. Everyone was most shocked - everyone except me, because getting into places I shouldn’t be is kind of my thing.

I spent a decade at the BBC - about halfway through I moved to Manchester, in the Frozen North, because they don’t really have decent husbands down south. Once here I found one within a year, and promptly had a child with him. Naturally I named her Elizabeth.

At some point I ended up becoming a content designer, which is very boring if you’re coming here wanting to find out about the life of a romantic novelist so I shall move on very quickly.

Remember Covid? Yeah, of course you do. Remember how loads of people made sourdough bread? Yeah, I didn’t do that. I went to Denmark and became a narrative designer. That means I wrote the stories for games - a mobile games company called Lily’s Garden, in fact. I wrote them a fan letter and it kind of spiralled out of control. I told you, I get into places I shouldn’t be.

I didn’t do that for long. It was pretty cool, but travelling to Denmark for a week every month and staying in fancy apartments and going to Michelin-starred restaurants etc isn’t as cool when you can’t take your freaking awesome husband and child with you. I mean, those dudes love their fancy meals. The rugebrod kind of ends up turning to ash in your mouth. Although many people would argue that’s just the default texture for rugebrod but I digress.

So I went back to content design, but I also figured maybe my successful foray into games writing might finally qualify me for membership of the only organisation I’ve ever been truly, truly desperate to be part of: The Romantic Novelists’ Association (RNA).

Part of this desperation stems from my vision of romantic novelists as red lipstick-wearing pearl-clutching tortoiseshell cigarette holder-owning ladies lying glamorously on chaise longues issuing proclamations. This may or may not be a personal goal of mine.

Anyway, it goes without saying that because I shouldn’t be in there, naturally I got in.

Then this incredible woman called Kiley Dunbar (a lecturer in my city) messaged me on Facebook and was like, do you want to talk about writing games at the annual RNA conference, and I thought, yes, that sounds like somewhere I don’t belong. I should go.

But as part of going to the conference, I discovered I could submit 10k words of novel and, based on a short synopsis, at least one publisher or agent would be forced to give me feedback on it. Hurrah! I promptly wrote 10k words of a novel.

Three of the five biggest publishers in the UK told me they’d publish it if I (a) finished it and (b) got a literary agent, so I sent a really panicked mass email to a handful of agents. I still have the email. It is extremely unhinged. But I found an agent anyway - and my lord, I landed on my feet. I’m now represented by Marina at The Soho Agency, and have signed a book deal with HQ Digital, a Harper Collins imprint.

So yes, that’s me. Who am I? Ultimately I’m a middle-aged woman living in suburbia working a boring day job, and who wrote a romantic novel about… well, you’ll find out.

Pre-order my book now for extra special good karma

UK booksellers:
The Regency Switch by Helen Gaskell (Waterstones)
The Regency Switch by Helen Gaskell (Foyles)
The Regency Switch by Helen Gaskell (Hatchards)
The Regency Switch by Helen Gaskell (Amazon)

US booksellers:

The Regency Switch by Helen Gaskell (Target)
The Regency Switch by Helen Gaskell (Walmart)
The Regency Switch by Helen Gaskell (Amazon)

Canadian booksellers:

The Regency Switch by Helen Gaskell (Amazon)