Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Best of 2024 ezine!

Bryn Turnbull Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Bryn Turnbull
Photo: Louise Claire Johnson

Bryn Turnbull

Bryn Turnbull Biography

When she was eleven years old, Bryn Turnbull accidentally put her foot through a single-pane window while leafing through a well-worn copy of Sandman (Volume 2). The incident, which resulted in a trip to the hospital, five stitches, and a unique application of superglue, taught her two things: one, that reading is not, and should not be attempted as, a full-contact sport; and two, that writers can create worlds within a book so absorbing, so completely and utterly all-encompassing, that they can drive readers to such distraction as to forget the outside world entirely.

​ Today, Bryn is a writer of historical fiction. Equipped with a Master of Letters in Creative Writing from the University of St. Andrews and a Bachelor's degree in English Literature from McGill University, Bryn, who resides in Toronto, writes books intended to drive readers to similar levels of distraction – to transport them into different eras and different worlds, but hopefully not into the hospital.

​ With a penchant for fountain pens that leak ink onto her fingers, antique furniture, and traveling, Bryn is, admittedly, an old soul with limited patience for modern conveniences - but if you want to get in touch with her, email - that most ancient of online technologies - is the best way to do it.

Bryn Turnbull's website

This bio was last updated on 11/01/2021. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Interview

Two Interviews with Bryn Turnbull: The Last Grand Duchess, which chronicles the fall of the Romanovs, and The Woman Before Wallis, the story of Thelma Furness, the woman who lost Edward Prince of Wales to Wallis Simpson.

The Last Grand Duchess

Why write about Olga, rather than her better-known sister Anastasia?

As a frequently impersonated historical figure (the subject of an animated Fox movie) Anastasia holds a lot of interest to modern audiences—but as the protagonist of a book which focuses on the political dynamics surrounding the fall of the Romanovs, she's less compelling. Anastasia was a sixteen-year-old girl when she died, and an incredibly immature sixteen-year-old at that. Unlike her eldest sister Olga, who wrote frequently in her diaries about the political climate in Russia, Anastasia had teenage preoccupations: crushes, gossip, and lessons. By contrast, Olga was ideally situated not only as an intellectually engaged spectator to the last days of the Empire, but also as an active participant: of her siblings, she had the closest relationship with her father, giving her in-the-room access to the abdication and its aftermath, and her war-work as a Red Cross nurse gave her a unique perspective on how the war impacted not only the nobility, but the Russian population at large.

And of course, as a more mature young woman, Olga's personal life provided a real fascination as well. A grand duchess who falls in love with an officer? ...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Books by this Author

Books by Bryn Turnbull at BookBrowse
The Last Grand Duchess jacket The Woman Before Wallis jacket
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Bryn Turnbull but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Marie Benedict

    Marie Benedict

    Marie Benedict is a lawyer with more than ten years' experience as a litigator at two of the country's premier law firms and for Fortune 500 companies. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Boston College with a focus in ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Last Grand Duchess

    Try:
    Lady Clementine
    by Marie Benedict

  • Melanie Benjamin

    Melanie Benjamin

    Melanie Benjamin is the New York Times bestselling author of The Children's Blizzard, Mistress of the Ritz, The Girls in the Picture, The Swans of Fifth Avenue, The Aviator's Wife, The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb, and ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Last Grand Duchess

    Try:
    The Aviator's Wife
    by Melanie Benjamin

We recommend 10 similar authors


Non-members can see 2 results. Become a member
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Daughters of Shandong
    Daughters of Shandong
    by Eve J. Chung
    Daughters of Shandong is the debut novel of Eve J. Chung, a human rights lawyer living in New York. ...
  • Book Jacket: The Women
    The Women
    by Kristin Hannah
    Kristin Hannah's latest historical epic, The Women, is a story of how a war shaped a generation ...
  • Book Jacket: The Wide Wide Sea
    The Wide Wide Sea
    by Hampton Sides
    By 1775, 48-year-old Captain James Cook had completed two highly successful voyages of discovery and...
  • Book Jacket: My Friends
    My Friends
    by Hisham Matar
    The title of Hisham Matar's My Friends takes on affectionate but mournful tones as its story unfolds...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
In Our Midst
by Nancy Jensen
In Our Midst follows a German immigrant family’s fight for freedom after their internment post–Pearl Harbor.
Who Said...

Use what talents you possess: The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Big Holiday Wordplay 2024

Enter Now

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.