Clare Whitfield's Poor Girls is shortlisted for the 2026 Adventure Writing Prize. 

About the Book: 

IF YOU CAN'T MAKE THE RULES...

1922. Eleanor Mackridge is staring down the barrel of two equally depressing life choices – serving the upper classes or finding a husband – when she crosses paths with the notorious all-female gang, the Forty Elephants.

YOU MIGHT AS WELL BREAK THEM

These are women who society would rather forget. They are bold and vulgar, they steal diamonds and fur, drink champagne and gin. They give young women ideas above their station – and Eleanor wants in. Now she has the chance to make sure that history remembers her.

Because women don't have to marry or serve to get ahead.

They can steal.

In Poor Girls, Clare Whitfield exposes the criminal underbelly of 1920s London – but this isn't a morality tale, it's an adventure for the willingly wicked.

An Interview with the Author: 

WNSF: Congratulations on being selected for the 2026 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize shortlist! What does adventure writing mean to you? Would you have considered yourself an adventure writer before being shortlisted for the Prize?

Clare: Yes absolutely. I believe that all stories are adventures of a kind, even if it’s about learning about yourself and the adventure changing you as a person. Adventure to me is about pushing past the personal boundaries of comfort and experiencing something that without your perseverance would have been out of scope. 

WNSF: Are there any particular books or authors which have made a lasting impact on you? 

Clare: So many! But if I must drill it down to what I would choose at this moment, today, then it would be the impact that reading Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut had on me as a teenager. I had read Wuthering Heights, Gone with the Wind, Shakespeare and all the books I was meant to and had been told were worth reading, and I do adore them. The impact this book had was that it made me want to write myself - I read that book and it brought me to life. When I was much older, I read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, that one also hit me hard and spurred me to write myself. I’m addicted to reading about wild and complex characters who go on to do unconventional things or seek out unusual experiences. 

WNSF: Can you tell us about any adventurous experiences in your life? Have they influenced you as a writer or your writing?

Clare: I write largely to experience adventure myself. Adventure to me is about experiencing something that changes you as a person or makes you see things differently, not necessarily about a destination or goal. You cannot quantify any person’s ‘adventure’ on their behalf as it’s so personal and subjective. Plus, there is no technology that can strip that essential experience of being human and experiencing something for yourself. However, I would say that I have had got up to some wild mischief when my friends have gotten together. I’m not sure I can give the details, but we tend to spark off each other and get into all sorts of trouble! I hoped to capture that wild spirit women have in Poor Girls. That rambunctious, ambitious, driven, devil may care attitude that never traditionally has been associated with women. We see it much more in younger women now and I’m all for it! I think when you get a bunch of clever and driven women together they cannot help but acquire the rebellious spirit that made The Forty Elephants so successful. 

WNSF: The Librarians and Library Staff who read, reviewed and selected your book for the shortlist asked us to ask you some questions on their behalf. One asked: 'I love how the ending was left open. Are you planning to visit Nell and her friends in the Caribbean for a sequel? If the story were to continue, would Nell and PC Bevan ever see each other again?

Clare: I love this question! Yes, I tend to leave my stories open to another revisit mainly because they never really end in my head! I did daydream often of what Nell and her friends would get up to in the Caribbean, and what kind of scams they would pull in a warmer climate. I did wonder if perhaps Nell and PC Bevan were ultimately destined to run into each other over and over again. They seem impossibly drawn to each other. 

WNSF: Another said, 'Not really a question but I wanted to say I think more books should come with reading lists like this one! If a book is as fascinating as Poor Girls is you really want to do a rabbit hole dive and find out more! How did you put the reading list together, and what gave you the idea?'

Clare: It was my research list. I have a fascination with true crime and have done since I was a 12 year old wannabe goth. I am drawn to understanding everything, I think because I have ASD(Autism Spectrum Disorder). Since being very young I have found people so impossibly cryptic and tried my very best to understand and make sense of human behaviour. In terms of the idea for Poor Girls I had known about The Forty Elephants and how successful they were as a crime gang and couldn’t understand (there’s that word again!) why they were not more high profile and well known – that’s when I ran into this largely unspoken cultural belief we have that women simply do not do such things as organise crime gangs. We have so many films and books about male gang crime, I thought the fact it was a female gang would/should be high profile. Some people know of them or have heard of them. They’ve featured in things but never as the lead story – which I couldn’t never understand!

WNSF: One sent us this: 'I loved that these women were not sidekicks or Nancys but real, messy, fallible and proactive, as well as the message about the double standards attending a desire for adventure. How did you go about creating these characters?'

Clare: Easy! I just used all the experiences I have witnessed or shared with the wild, free-spirited, messy and complex women I have grown up around and continue to know. I did base a lot of the way they interact with each other on my daughter’s friends (I assure you they are not criminals!). This trope that girls are caring, soft, quiet and meek and submissive at all times is at such odds with anyone who has known any woman! Its laughable. All little girls start out seeking adventure, just like little boys. It’s simply a natural part of being human, isn’t it? 

On the left, Maggie Hill, and on the right, Alice Diamond. 

WNSF: Are any of the heists based on real events? Some are quite gruesome! 

Clare: Some of the smaller jobs were based on accounts and crimes I could research but the more gruesome I made up in my head! Others were based on theory, such as extortion. It was known that The Forty Elephants did intimidate witnesses and move into extortion and blackmail, but I didn’t have specific accounts to research in that remit. 

WNSF: Your book is set in the 1920s. Why did you choose to write about this time? Or that particular place in this time?

Clare: I didn’t know much about Britian in the interwar years between WWI and WWII, but I’m glad I did explore the 1920s. It reminded me so much of the socio-economic situation and cultural wars we find ourselves in today. Nell’s situation and perspective seemed entirely relevant to a young person’s prospects in 2026 some 100 years later! We haven’t really moved on in terms of culture and socio-economic outlook or roles based on class and gender. The details may have twiddled about but largely share the same space on the broader spectrum of human existence! The frustration and arguments seemed very familiar to today. Is there something to learn so we can avoid the same mistakes? Obviously. But will we learn it? 

WNSF: A strong sense of place is vital to any great adventure story. What role does research play in your writing? How did you make your setting feel realistic? 

Clare: I’m a very sensory person so I must experience the environment and understand places from that perspective – like a cat! I come from Morden originally (the bottom of the Northern Line) so the haunts of The Forty Elephants around Elephant & Castle and Southwark and Lambeth are not unfamiliar. I hung out at The Clapham Grand that features in the book when Nell first moves up to London. I loved getting about and researching, especially locations if I can, and then cross referencing it with any research material I can find along with reading about social history – the real-life accounts of ordinary people living at that time to get a real flavour of what day to day existence was like. 

I had so much fun researching and learning about The Forty Elephants. Me and my friends even went to The Clapham Grand. When I was struggling to reimagine the inside of the flat where the girl’s lived (based on Elliots Row) I had a strange dream where Queen Alice Diamond herself (gang leader) came to visit me and asked me to go inside and took me round her flat to show me! However random – it worked! I also spent hours looking up the various criminal records and finding mug shots taken by the police of any of The Forties – I fell in love with the brazen audacity on Alice Diamond’s face! 

Clare with her friends at The Clapham Grand. 

WNSF: We find that adventure often crosses into other genres, including crime and historical fiction. What kind of books do you like to read? 

Clare: I love crime most of all, and historical books. I read non-fiction on crime and history, and war. I think I’m open to reading any genre, but I do struggle with romance! I’m not sure what that says about me, but we best avoid that one! 

WNSF: What would you consider to be the upsides, and the downsides, of being an author?

Clare: Being a published author is an honour and a privilege and I’ll forever be grateful that I was fortunate to have the opportunity to be validated as an author with a publishing deal. Especially coming from my very ordinary working-class background. The arts were just about in reach when I was growing up but still seemed a distant dream. Nowadays, its nigh on impossible unless you have strong financial support behind you. Most of the writers I know work full-time as well. The upsides are the thrill of creating something from the thoughts in your head and having readers engage with the characters and the story as much as you do! That is authentic human connection as far as I’m concerned. One reader messaged me to say my books gave her nightmares! I was so flattered! The downsides are it seems impossible to be able to make a living from it and a large part is dependent on being available to make the right contacts and build the right network – a bit tricky when you’re at work all day and can’t afford the time off! Also attending events can get very expensive but it's great to meet readers and other authors. 

Buy the Book:

About the Author: 

Clare Whitfield is a UK-based writer. While studying for an MA in Creative & Critical Writing at the University of Winchester, her fiction appeared on Spelk, Commuter-Lit, Literary Orphans and in Matt Shaw’s Masters of Horror anthology. Poor Girls is Clare's third novel after People of Abandoned Character, which won the Goldsboro Glass Bell Award in 2021, and The Gone and The Forgotten.

What Our Reviewers Said:

"This is the best book I have read all year. I LOVED IT! I couldn't put this down, I listened to this and absolutely felt as though I was lifting in Oxford Street with them and shoving furs down my bloomers. I love the fierce sisterhood/friendship too."

"I loved witnessing Nell’s growth and her energy and making tough decisions, some of which may not have been the right ones but that makes the story relatable. This is 100% shortlist worthy and exactly what embodies the competition."