Catriona Byers

Dr Catriona Byers is a writer, photographer and historian. She holds a PhD in History from King’s College London, where her thesis focused on the medical, carceral and socio-cultural significance of the nineteenth-century morgues of Paris and New York. She is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHoSTM), and moonlights as a food stylist alongside her historical research.

Her debut non-fiction book MORGUE: The Paris Morgue, the Unknown Dead, and the Birth of Modern Life will be published by Simon & Schuster (UK) and Scribner (USA) in 2027. Translation rights have so far been sold in ten territories. An essay on Paris morgue keeper Clovis Pierre, adapted from the book, won the inaugural Elizabeth Longford Brief Lives Award and was published in the Times Literary Supplement (TLS) in January 2026.

Originally from Fife, Scotland, she is now based in Paris, France. She can be found on Instagram @heymorguegirl and on her website: www.catbyers.com.