Joanne Drayton
Joanne Drayton, Ph.D., is a New York Times bestselling author who has published seven books.
Latest from Joanne Drayton
How the Queens of Crime Fiction Developed a Modern Myth
Between World War I and the Great Depression, the murder mystery was perfected by four women writers, gaining stratospheric popularity. Amid unparalleled social change, fictional detectives offered to symbolically restore traditional values, in a new myth for a rational age.
A Māori Finds Her Royal Roots
Having a whakapapa for Māori is more than having a family tree. The names of tīpuna (ancestors), the events, the places, the mountains and rivers locate and anchor Māori on the timeline of their heritage. This is the miracle of whakapapa: when ancestors whisper secrets to their mokopuna (grandchildren).
How a Million-Dollar Viking Chess Piece Was Found in a Kitchen Drawer
A knickknack from a Scottish family’s kitchen drawer turned out to be a Viking chess piece from the celebrated Lewis hoard and sold at Sotheby’s for almost $1 million — testimony to the power of the mundane to mask the simply unimaginable.