Mairi Kidd

Mairi Kidd on The Specimens

Mairi Kidd's admirable literary career includes three books celebrating fierce historical women, the irresistible Warriors and Witches and Damn Rebel Bitches among them.

In her historical fiction debut, The Specimens, Mairi empowers two women of the horrific Burke and Hare tale.

Inside the grand walls of Edinburgh's nineteenth-century scientific institutions, anatomists began to map the secrets of the human body in order to discover new medical innovations.

But to the horror of the local population, a shortage of bodies soon led to the gruesome act of graveyard bodysnatching, a heartless crime that would soon spread like a disease throughout the city. And when stealing cadavers turns to murder, Burke & Hare became two of the most notorious serial killers of their time.

This is the story of those grim events, told for the first time through the eyes of Susan and Helen (Nelly), two women caught up in those horrific matters.

Mairi Kidd recently took up leadership of Moat Brae, Scotland's National Centre for Children's books, in 2022. Her previous roles include head of Languages and Publishing at Creative Scotland and Managing Director of Barrington Stoke, a prize-winning publisher. A fluent Gaelic speaker, she has an MA in Celtic Studies from Edinburgh University. As CEO of Storlann, the National Gaelic Education Resource Agency, she worked with Scottish Government, BordnaGaidhlig and local authorities. Mairi is a contributor to BBC Radio nan Gaidheal's books coverage and writes for broadcast, including Gaelic comedy series FUNC. Mairi is the author ofWarriors, Witches and Damn Rebel Bitches, Feisty and Fiery and Fierce and We Are All Witches (Black & White, Edinburgh).