Ruth Kvarnström-Jones (b. 1962) is a writer born in England who has lived in Sweden for forty years and has become one of the country’s most popular historical novelists. This is largely due to her deep affection for her home city of Stockholm, which she has expressed in a witty and focused way by telling stories through the city’s landmarks. This approach gave rise to the series The Jewels of Stockholm. The first volume, The Phenomenal Women of the Grand Hôtel, draws on the illustrious history of Stockholm’s most famous hotel to recount the lives of women who have slipped into obscurity in the early twentieth century. Kvarnström-Jones brings to the fore the hotel’s former manager Wilhelmina Skogh (1849–1926), who built her first hotel at the age of 27, along with the people around her. The second book, Kindred Spirits at Nordiska Kompaniet, is set in the second decade of the twentieth century, when the largest department store in Northern Europe was established in Stockholm. The novel draws inspiration from the life and work of one of its founders, Joseph Sachs (1872–1949), while also incorporating the experiences and emotions of many women of the period.
Ruth Kvarnström-Jones
