Pre-book here: The Maternal Element published by Salt 2026
The Maternal Element is a sweeping, gripping epic with an extraordinary woman at its heart. Maria Mendeleeva – mother of Dmitri Mendeleev, who devised the Periodic Table of the Elements – is a heroine like no other. A woman who refuses to be quashed by circumstance, Maria fights against the strictures of her time to gain an education for herself and for her children as she traverses the Urals of Russia seeking opportunity and safety for her family. A vivid and visceral portrait of a woman history has long since forgotten, The Maternal Element is a manifesto for truth, female empowerment and defying societal expectations.
Why I Wrote The Maternal Element
Praise for this Book
‘The Maternal Element is a masterclass in detective research. The result is a history rich in personalities, full of drama, and alive to the smallest details that reveal the greatest truths. In Nicholls’s hands, Maria Mendeleeva is revealed for the first time as a force in her own right – the invisible element in her son Dmitri Mendeleev’s periodic table.’ —Amanda Foreman
‘I was transported to a Russia in better times, when despite the poverty and contrasting opulence of the court there was freethinking, high culture and peasant nobility. Cleverly imagined, beautifully voiced and written.’ —Allan Mallinson
‘I lapped it up over three days. The story of an extraordinary mother of a large family in Russia living before the Revolutions, told with love and flair by another mother of a large family. A wonderfully researched and heart-felt read.’ —Jeremy Irons
‘At the heart of Kate Nicholls’ vivid realisation of 19th-century Russia is a remarkable woman. A born writer with a finely tuned ear for dialogue and a graphic sense of the historical moment, Kate is as comfortable rendering the household of Maria Mendeleeva – the maternal element – as in articulating the crucible of ideas that helped create one of the greatest scientists in history.’ —Alan Samson
‘The great virtue of the book is the mastery of language, and the wonderful prose-poetic imagery, and the vivid picture we gain of everyday life in Russia / Siberia.’ —Richard Dawkins
‘The Maternal Element is a sweeping, gripping epic with an extraordinary woman at its heart. Maria Mendeleeva – mother of Dmitri Mendeleev, who devised the Periodic Table of the Elements – is a heroine like no other. The novel is true to history but has the vivid life of fiction, and we meet a Maria who is passionate, courageous and brilliant, who fights against the strictures of her time to gain an education for herself – and for her children. Her adventures in 19th-century Russia sweep the reader into a wholly immersive world. Simply put: this is a brilliant and entrancing novel. I could not put it down.’ —Erica Wagner
Other books by Kate Nicholls
Under the Camelthorn Tree (2019)
'Under The Camelthorn Tree is a breathtaking memoir written with an abundance of wit, honesty and love. Over the course of a page I found myself weeping, giggling, inspired, challenged, but never lectured to. Kate's humour is infectious, her honesty and vulnerability emboldening and her language precise in conjuring the sights, sounds and smells of her unique journey' - Harry Michell
A sort of Life Force personified, a whirlwind of love and motherhood and science; beautiful woman, brutally true, impossibly brave, impossibly stylish, just plain bloody impossible. Self-taught in science, this poet of the Okavango home-schooled - right through to good universities - four remarkable children in a remote camp surrounded by individually known, radio-tracked lions. After tirelessly working to rehabilitate Botswana's rape victims, her own horrific rape and its aftermath threatened to destroy her life and the family idyll but . . . well, read the whole beautiful book to the end. You'll never see another memoir like this (Richard Dawkins)
Bursting with humour, intelligence and fierce humanity, Under the Camelthorn Tree takes you on a breathtaking journey: anthropological and personal. It is an unflinchingly brave, generous book filled with the wisdom of one who has seen both the beauty and the darkness the world has to give - Sophie Dahl
I've just read your book and I have to tell you as a fellow non fiction African writer and mum that I have not enjoyed and been as hooked to a book on Africa in years. Congratulations doesn't really cut it. I know what it takes to be so honest in a book and it can't have been easy. I loved it. I read it in the Serengeti where I've just been leading a safari for a couple of weeks and have recommended it to all my guests. (Reader’s review)
A must-read, haunting book.
Kate Nicholls and her five young children, Emily, Travers, Angus, Maisie and Oakley (aged just eleven-months-old) moved to Botswana in 1994. As a biologist, Kate wanted to work with lions and decided that taking the children would broaden their horizons, life in the bush would be harsh, but give them something very few other children ever get to experience, living among wild animals. (Reader’s review)
Kate's homeschooled her children. These four words cannot describe the impact she made on their lives. They have all far exceeded all expectations in their chosen careers. All attended university. All have confidence and abilities that bounce off every page of the book. They all knew how to handle a Land Rover, change a tyre, and from a very early age were able to drive. Tracking and identifying lions were part of their daily lives. (Readers’s review)
There is a very dark side to the book. Kate’s rape and her PTSD. She describes it with brutal honesty and how it affected her for years after she left Botswana and the impact her behaviour, as a result of the rape had on her children. It is part of her story and part of her life. What is more important is that she's written about it, and by writing and sharing this traumatic experience, she might have just helped someone else take that first step towards surviving as well.(Reader’s review)
Our world would be a very dull place without people like Kate Nichols. She left the comfort of her very established life in England to follow a dream; working and studying lions. As a result, her five children were homeschooled under a Camelthorn tree, where they not only had possibly the best education possible but learnt life-lessons that most children nor adults ever get the chance to experience.(Reader’s review)
The Lion Children was written by Kate’s children Travers, Angus and Maisie McNeice (with Oakley) as part of a homeschool project–it was published by Orion in 2002
The Lion Children
Foreword by Richard Dawkins.
Book written by Kate’s children Travers, Angus and Maisie McNeice 2002