Christina Sweeney Baird Books in Order

Christina Sweeney-Baird was born in 1993 and grew up in North London and Glasgow. She later built her working life in London, balancing the structured world of law with the private, persistent work of writing fiction.

She studied law at the University of Cambridge, graduating with a First in 2015, and went on to work as a corporate litigation lawyer. Writing had to fit around a demanding day job, so she learned to treat it as a regular practice rather than something to wait to feel inspired for. A writing tracker and small daily targets helped her keep moving.

First came an unpublished historical novel.

She finished that manuscript in August 2018 after about two years of work. It did not find a publisher, but completing it mattered. It showed her that she could get to the end of a long project, and it cleared the way for the idea that would become her debut.

Earlier that year, reading The Power helped Sweeney-Baird see how speculative fiction could ask direct questions about gender and power. She began wondering what would happen if most men suddenly vanished from public and private life, not as a neat fantasy, but as a practical human disaster. Who would people try to protect? What would happen to work, families, government, medicine, and grief?

She started writing The End of Men on September 1, 2018. The first draft took about nine months. After signing with an agent in 2019, she substantially rewrote the book, cutting a much larger set of viewpoints and strengthening the characters at its center, including Catherine, who became a key emotional link for readers.

The revision changed the shape of the book.

Published in 2021, The End of Men begins in 2025, when a virus emerging in Scotland kills men while women are immune. Dr. Amanda MacLean spots the pattern early, but her warning is dismissed. As the outbreak becomes global, the novel follows women with very different roles, including Catherine, who records the human stories of the crisis; Dawn, working within government; and scientists trying to find a vaccine.

Sweeney-Baird uses the big premise to stay close to ordinary consequences. The novel is interested in mothers, partners, friends, doctors, civil servants, and people trying to keep daily life going when nothing feels ordinary. It deals with loss and fear, but also leaves room for dry humor, which she has said matters when characters face difficult things. Readers who enjoy a mix of pandemic fiction, social thought experiments, and character-driven suspense will find that blend at the heart of her work.

At the time of her debut, Sweeney-Baird was living in London, working in corporate litigation, and drafting a second novel. Her path is a useful reminder that a first published book can arrive after years of quiet practice, a finished manuscript that went nowhere, and a willingness to start again with the idea that will not leave you alone.