Vic James

Vic James is the pen name of a British novelist and television documentary director with a BA, MA, and PhD in history and English from Oxford, where she specialized in late-medieval and early-modern Europe. Before turning to fiction, she directed current-affairs and history documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4 and worked as a radio presenter and magazine writer, and has also lived in Japan. James writes speculative fiction blending political intrigue with fantastical premises, most notably the Dark Gifts trilogy — Gilded Cage, Tarnished City, and Bright Ruin — set in a Britain ruled by magically gifted aristocrats. Writing as V. V. James, she created the witch-hunt thriller Sanctuary and its sequels Bittershore and Redhaven; Sanctuary was adapted into the television series Sanctuary: A Witch's Tale.