Hello there, wonderful book lovers.

If you want to know more about my current and forthcoming books, this is the place.

To find out what I’ve been up to, read my blog.

If you’d like to arrange a school visit, please get in touch. (I love doing them; in fact that’s where I get a lot of my ideas from!)

You read it here first! I’m working on a new novel for Chicken House, to be called ‘The Breaking’. It will come out in July next year, and if you enjoyed ‘The Keepers’ Daughter’ you should enjoy this book too. It isn’t a sequel, but a stand alone novel. It’s set in a remote northern community in the present day. Children are disappearing and no one knows what is happening to them… Watch the blog for updates as I work!

I’ve got two copies of ‘The Keepers’ Tattoo’ (the American edition of The Keepers’ Daughter) looking for good homes. If you think you can provide one, leave a comment below…

July 12th

Summer is here… or at least until tomorrow when the rain and wind return. At least that means I won’t feel guility for sitting indoors with a book. I re-read To Kill A Mockingbird last week, in honour of its 50th birthday. It’s one of my very favourite books, and I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read it. I swear I enjoy it more every time. I must go back and re-read The Little Stranger by Donna Tartt too. It has all sorts of echoes of Mockingbird. I’m still ploughing through Peter Ackroyd’s Venice, but this is a reflection on me, not the book, which is fascinating. I did however, manage to finish The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. It’s so dense it’s like eating a wardrobe with a teaspoon, but my goodness, it’s worth the effort. You just have to surrender yourself. And finally, I’ve been reading two new children’s books by authors I know: Rocking Horse War  by Lari Don and Witch Silver by Anne Forbes. Both great fun adventure stories set in Scotland.

 

Hooray! Easter holidays mean I’ve actually had time to read some books. I binge-read my way through the third and fourth Twilight books and enjoyed them very much, having almost given up on them after New Moon. I particularly enjoyed the second half of Breaking Dawn, which gave me a few surprises. Don’t worry – I wouldn’t dream of putting any spoilers up here. After them, I turned to  The Children’s Book by A S Byatt. I’d been looking forward to reading it for ages, and expected to love it, but I actually found it incredibly tedious. I’m sure this is a reflection on me, not the book, but I felt as if I was being taught rather than entertained, and none of the characters ever really got their hooks into me. I consoled myself with a dose of the wonderful Donna Leon (Friends in High Places this time). This is a series I absolutely love. If you like crime fiction, but you get fed up with detectives who always end up confronting the killer and have implausibly dramatic private lives, these are for you. The backdrop is Venice, and if you’ve ever been there, you’re almost bound to love them. That brings me up to date, and at the moment I’m splitting my reading time between Witches Abroad (yet again) by Terry Pratchett and Venice by Peter Ackroyd. Very different, but both very entertaining.

Why not tell me what you’ve been reading recently, or recommend something you think I’d like?