Jacqueline lives in Gloucestershire with her husband, son & delinquent border terrier. She is the financial director of her husband’s mortgage brokerage and has a wealth of property experience.
She spends her free time writing, researching her extensive East Anglian Family History and rambling through Gloucestershire’s beautiful countryside.
Her extensive family history website is at www.eastanglianancestors.co.uk
Jacqueline Beard Writer 
How interesting! I must order one of your books. I live in Cheltenham and am presenting to ASSAP on Imogen Swinhoe and St. Anne’s, but most of my writing is on the history and foklore of West Suffolk. I grew up on an farming estate north of Bury St Edmunds and still travel to the area once a month to research.
Look forward to reading one of your books!
CJ x
Hi Chris – What an amazing set of coincidences! I thoroughly enjoyed researching the St Anne’s article, especially the genealogical bits. Your writing about the history & folklore of Suffolk sounds fascinating and just my thing. My family history goes back to the 1500’s in Aspall, but I have quite a few relatives in Bury St Edmunds and surrounds – we may be distantly related! 🙂
Ms. Beard:
I discovered your Harpham mysteries early one morning last week as I was searching for a new book to read on the Amazon Kindle website. “Harpham mysteries? Quite mysterious. The name Harpham isn’t the one that you see very frequently in the world of fiction. Holmes, yes, Spade, yes. Lewis, yes. But Harpham? No.” I was intrigued and purchased the first three books in the series.
I finished the first tonight and had to drop you a line of congratulations for a delightful tale with a genealogical twist. My father traced our branch of the family back to the late 1600s to a small town near Sheffield. Our family genealogy charts are prominently displayed in our family room. Genealogy, you might say, is in my blood. But I am curious…. where did you get the name Harpham from? The town? An old friend? the warship? You mention in the postscript that some of the characters were drawn from real people in the 1890s, I assume that Harpham was a product of your imagination.
Whatever is the case, I look forward to the second and third volumes where, I assume, the readers will learn more of the backstory of the private detective with the wonderful name.
If you haven’t guessed, I am a Harpham, a 69-year old professor of political science and dean of the Honors College at the University of Texas at Dallas. I read a great deal in the fields of philosophy, politics, and history. I suppose that I may be adding some mysteries to my book list now.
Regards,
Ted
Edward J. Harpham
Dallas, Texas
Dear Professor Harpham
Thank you for your comprehensive and interesting email. I’m delighted to hear from a real-life bearer of the Harpham surname and in awe of your academic background and writings.
I have spent many years researching my family tree and have traced back my great x 10 grandmother Alice Buxton to Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. Without boring you with details, her mother Emma had a distant connection to Elizabeth Carlys who was married to Thomas Harpham born circa 1552. I know very little about them except that they had a son Thomas born about 1579.
I searched my database (now over 55,000 individuals) to find a name to suit my Private Detective and settled on Harpham because I liked it. So, Lawrence Harpham was based on a real person.
It’s interesting to hear that you have researched your Harpham’s to Sheffield and back to the 1600s. I wonder if there were any connections between the Suffolk and Yorkshire Harpham’s? It’s a fair distance apart but always possible.
Thank you once again for your kind words about my books.
Best regards
Jacqui
Will there be any more Lawrence Harpham mysteries after the Moving Stone? I’ve read the Fressingfield Witch and the Ripper Deception. I am reluctant to read the Moving Stone in case it is the last of Lawrence and Violet!
Hi Audrey. Thank you for your message and your interest. Yes, there will be another Lawrence Harpham and it will hopefully be released later this year.
Jacqueline, have ready your entire Harpham/Violet series and cannot wait for #6! You must help me, though! This is driving me crazy. Harpham has a daughter, Daisey? But how? I don’t recall Lawrence and Violet being intimate to produce a child. Did I miss something? Help please!
Hi George. Thank you for your email and for your interest in my books. So glad you enjoyed them. Yes – there was a very subtle reference to it in The Scole Confession and it happened in Overstrand late one night when Lawrence turned to Violet for comfort. They didn’t get to talk about it the next day, then Lawrence went straight to Liverpool where he met up with Loveday. Their moment of intimacy was more implied than stated and I may have made it a bit too subtle in hindsight!
Okay..that clears it up and many thanks for your reply! I can sleep now. ‘Subtle’ and ‘Implied’ works fine for me. I am hopefully assuming there will be a #6 Harpham novel? Cannot wait. I was wondering if it was somewhat difficult writing about crimes against children? What a tough unbearable life for them and their families. Finally, I thoroughly enjoy your historical references.
Until then I will try the Vote for Murder novel.
All the best!
George
Hi. I enjoyed The Cornish Widow. I was wondering whether you would mind emailing me? I have some information which I would like to share with you.
Hi Mark. Thanks very much for your kind comments about my book. Yes, I’d be grateful for the info. My email address is jacqueline beard writer @aol.co.uk Kind regards Jacqui