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ABOUT THIS BOOK

PUBLISHER: Black & White Publishing

ISBN: 9781785306488

RRP: £16.99

PAGES: 288

PUBLICATION DATE:
October 23, 2025

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Poor Creatures

By Mairi Kidd

The worst monsters are the human kind . . .

Dundee, 1812. Isabel Baxter awaits the arrival of Mary Godwin, a girl of precocious intellect and grand passions, sent north to cure a mysterious ailment. Nestled in woodland on the banks of the Tay, the Baxter family home seems a perfect place for a troubled girl to recuperate. But The Cottage is a place of secrets, memories . . . and monsters.

We know Mary Shelley as the girl who wrote Frankenstein, but there are great holes in the fabric of her story.
Discover the fascinating tale of Mary Godwin: the mind which birthed Frankenstein’s monster.

Years before Frankenstein, this is a story of emerging womanhood and literary intrigue, exploring the many monsters in young Mary Shelley’s life. From the bestselling author of Waterstones Scottish Book of the month, the Specimens, Poor Creatures is perfect for fans of Stacey Halls, Sara Sheridan and Ambrose Parry.

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Mairi Kidd

Mairi Kidd is the author of We are All Witches, Warriors and Witches and Damn Rebel Bitches and Feisty and Fiery and Fierce, as well as a number of books for children, and drama for TV, radio and stage. She has a passion for exploring untold stories, and particularly women’s lives in history.

Mairi is Director of the Saltire Society and has been Head of Literature at Creative Scotland and CEO of Seven Stories the National Centre for Children’s Books. She has also been a publisher working to open up the written word to children and young people with dyslexia, when she had the honour of publishing household names including Julia Donaldson, Michael Morpurgo, Michael Rosen and Quentin Blake.

Mairi is a Gaelic speaker and regularly appears on TV and radio discussing books. She lives in Portobello with her husband Tom, an illustrator, and their very handsome cat.