Christina Hardyment

Born in 1946, Christina lived in England as a child except for two years in South Africa (1951-1953).  She read history at Newnham College, Cambridge. 

After a few years as a film editor, she married Tom Griffith, taught history for two years (Blackheath High School) and brought up four daughters. She now has ten grandchildren and has lived since 2006 on the western edge of Oxford. 

Christina's Alyce Chaucer mystery novels are inspired by the tomb of the granddaughter of Geoffrey Chaucer. 
Alyce lived from 1404 to 1475, married profitably three times, but lost each of her noble husbands to a violent death. After the horrific murder of her third husband William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, she chose to spend the last twenty-five years of her life as a widow, enjoying the moated palace she and her last husband had built in Ewelme, Oxfordshire.  There is evidence that she was an independently-minded woman with decided opinions. Her elaborate tomb in the Oxfordshire church of St Mary’s Ewelme is topped by an elegant but unflattering alabaster effigy, under which lies a shockingly realistic carved cadaver, arched in agony. Tantalisingly, little more is known about Alyce, so rather than writing a patchy biography full of guesswork, Christina decided to allow her imagination full rein.

The fourth Alyce Chaucer novel will be published later in 2026.