Alison Goodman is a Melbourne based writer of crime, fantasy and historical fiction. She is the author of nine novels including her latest release The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin, the second book in the Ill-Mannered Ladies series. The first book in the series, The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies, won the 2024 Readers’ Choice Davitt Award and was long-listed for the 2023 ARA Historical Novel Award. 

Alison holds a PhD focusing on creative writing, historical research and the Regency era and is currently working on the third novel in the Ill-Mannered Ladies series.

If you could have dinner with any historical figure, who would it be and why?

It would be all the members of the Algonquin Round Table -- to listen to their wit and banter would be a glorious way to spend a night.