American · b. 1965
Deborah Harkness is an American historian and author whose All Souls trilogy — beginning with A Discovery of Witches — blends academic witchcraft, vampire romance, and the history of alchemy into a globally bestselling fantasy series.
Deborah Harkness is a professor of history at the University of Southern California, specializing in the history of science and alchemy in early modern England. This expertise saturates A Discovery of Witches (2011), the first novel of the All Souls trilogy: it is set partly in Elizabethan Oxford and partly in contemporary Oxford, and its protagonist Diana Bishop is a historian of alchemy who discovers she is also a powerful witch. The love interest is Matthew Clairmont, a vampire who has lived since the Middle Ages and who has personal connections to the historical figures whose manuscripts Diana studies.
The trilogy — Shadow of Night (2012) and The Book of Life (2014) complete it — is distinguished from most paranormal romance by the genuine historical content. The time-travel sequences set in Elizabethan and Jacobean England draw on Harkness’s academic research, and the magical system is grounded in the actual alchemical traditions she has spent her career studying. This gives the books a texture and plausibility unusual in the subgenre.
A Discovery of Witches was adapted for television by Sky One and AMC, running for three seasons between 2018 and 2022. The series maintained the historical and academic elements of the novels with reasonable fidelity. Harkness continues to publish historical novels alongside her academic work. The All Souls trilogy is the ideal entry point for readers who want their fantasy romance to contain substantial historical content.
by Deborah Harkness
The second All Souls novel — Diana Bishop and Matthew Clairmont timewalk to Elizabethan London, where Diana must learn witchcraft and retrieve the enchanted manuscript that holds the secrets of all creatures.
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by Deborah Harkness
The conclusion of the All Souls trilogy — Diana and Matthew return to the present, the mysteries of Ashmole 782 are resolved, and the conflict between creatures and the Congregation reaches its conclusion.
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by Deborah Harkness
A witch-historian at Oxford's Bodleian Library unearths an enchanted alchemical manuscript and finds herself at the center of a centuries-old conflict between vampires, witches, and daemons — and falling for a 1,500-year-old vampire geneticist.
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