Overview
She did not mean to. But she has killed, and killed, and killed again. Dundee, 1812. Isabel Baxter awaits the arrival of Mary Godwin, a girl of precocious intellect and grand passions, sent north to cure an ailment no one understands. Nestled in woodland on the banks of the Tay, the Baxter family estate seems a perfect place for a troubled girl to recuperate. But The Cottage is a place of secrets, memories... and monsters. Haunted by sickness and loss, Mary steps with Isabel into a shared fantasy world of intrigue and desire. As the fiction weaves its web about them, the two girls begin to lose their interest in reality - with far-ranging consequences for the lives of more than themselves... The tale of the birth of Frankenstein has fascinated for centuries. Poor Creatures imagines the birth of Mary Shelley the writer - and the devastating effects on the circle about her.
Full Product Details
Author: Mairi Kidd
Publisher: Bonnier Books Ltd
Imprint: Black and White Publishing
Dimensions:
Width: 15.50cm
, Height: 2.30cm
, Length: 23.50cm
Weight: 0.390kg
ISBN: 9781785306495
ISBN 10: 1785306499
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 23 October 2025
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Not yet available
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.
Reviews
PRAISE FOR THE SPECIMENS: ""A work of fiction that is both a potent portrait of early 19th-century Edinburgh but also a story about female agency or the lack of it. The result is a compelling, painful, haunted piece of work."" THE HERALD ""Beguiling and atmospheric, this is as much an engrossing character study as a bold reimagining of the infamous anatomy murders."" HEAT MAGAZINE ""A fresh, feminine take on the horrors of Burke and Hare and their complicit Edinburgh anatomists"" SALLY MAGNUSSON
Author Information
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.
