About Me
I was brought up in the market town of Newport, Shropshire whose main claim to fame is that it had its own Great Fire in 1665 – a whole year before London – although with less dramatic results. After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in Modern History, I worked as an editor in book publishing, and it wasn’t until after taking a break to bring up my family that I decided I wanted to try and fulfil my childhood ambition to write my own children’s books.
My debut novel The White Phoenix was, funnily enough, a children’s historical novel about the Great Fire of London and was highly commended in the Historical Association’s Young Quills award. As a result of the research I undertook while writing it, I visit local primary schools with a workshop about the Great Fire of London, and now regularly lead guided walks about the Great Fire for the award-winning walking tour company, London Walks.
I am passionate about encouraging children’s reading and writing, and I love visiting schools to talk about books, and lead creative writing workshops. I am secretary of CWISL (Children’s Writers and Illustrators for Stories and Literacy) and have for many years volunteered with the charity Give a Book, going into prisons on Family Days to help children choose books.
My second novel, The Great Bear Breakout, is again inspired by history, this time by real-life events I discovered while researching my family history in south London. Set in a now-forgotten Victorian zoo called the Royal Surrey Zoological Gardens, it’s the story of a feisty heroine with a family secret, her bearkeeper friend, two brown bears and a Dickensian villain. I am looking forward to sharing The Great Bear Breakout with readers when it is published by The Book Guild in February 2026.
Bruno and Bertha, the fictional bears who feature in The Great Bear Breakout, are based on Mish and Lucy, two lovely brown bears who live in Wildwood Devon, a wonderful wildlife park near Ottery St Mary. I had such a great time researching this book. The friendly and knowledgeable staff at Wildwood Devon taught me everything I now know about brown bears, and I put nearly all of it in the book. Mish and Lucy certainly love sweet things just as much as Bruno and Bertha do!
Q & A s
A chat with fellow writer Gail Aldwin, first published on Gail’s blog ‘The Writer is a Lonely Hunter’ 28 August 2020.
Catherine, can you start by telling us where your writing journey began?
My writing journey began when I was a six-year-old living in Lincolnshire and I wrote my first ‘book’, unpromisingly titled, ‘Catherine, Lucy and the Goat’. We moved to Shropshire when I was seven, and I continued to write ‘books’, mostly thinly disguised imitations of Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons series, with a few Victorian melodramas thrown in. When I grew up I tried my hand at adult short stories, but realised quite quickly that my heart was in children’s books. The books I read as a child remain the ones that resonate most deeply with me, and now I love reading new children’s books, partly as research, and partly just because they’re a great read.
What inspired you to write The White Phoenix?
Like lots of children, I’ve been fascinated by the Great Fire of London ever since I was a child. When I visited London from Shropshire at the age of ten, the first thing I wanted to see was the Monument to the Fire. When I moved to London in my early twenties, I loved walking round the City, with its ancient churches and old street names dotted among the modern glass and steel buildings. Much later, at a time when I was looking for a subject for a story, I caught part of a radio programme about the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire, and it reawakened my interest. When I started researching I discovered that London in 1666 was a great setting for a novel, not just because of the Fire but because of all the other things that were going on – war, fear of invasion, the plague, as well as all the prophecies swirling round London about the year 1666. I was initially going to write about St Paul’s, but then I realised it would be more fun to write about the many bookshops that clustered round the cathedral, especially as it was possible for a woman and her daughter to run a bookshop by themselves.
I started writing some time ago, but many of the themes in the book have turned out to have more resonance today than I could ever have imagined.
What are the challenges of publishing your first book during a pandemic?
The first thing to say is that I was absolutely delighted to have the book published, and the thought of publication has been a beacon of light in what has been a tough year both generally and personally. However, there’s no denying that there are significant challenges. I think the worst thing is that I’ve not been able to do any events with children at bookshops, libraries or schools.
And of course I can’t help being sad that I wasn’t able to have a proper launch party, because there are so many people who have shared in this journey with me and whom I would like to thank. However, I did manage instead to have a series of very small parties, when small gatherings were allowed, so that was fun.
Who is the ideal reader for The White Phoenix?
I really hope that children aged from about 9 to 12 or 13 will enjoy it. I suppose it is a cliché to say so, but I have written the sort of book that I would have liked to read at that age. However, I also know that quite a few adults have read and enjoyed it, so that’s very gratifying.
Is there a message in the novel that you want young readers to grasp?
Lizzie, the main protagonist in the book, refuses to give in to the prejudice of other people around her and makes friends with a Catholic girl at a time when Catholics were very much considered the enemy. I hope that young readers will take away the message that they should never let others tell them what type of people they can or can’t be friends with.
I also hope that young readers grasp the message that you should stand up for what you believe in, which is what Lizzie tries to do, though not always successfully.
Which children’s authors have influenced you?
From my own childhood – Gillian Avery who wrote wonderful, vivid stories about Victorian children such as The Greatest Gresham; Penelope Farmer who wrote my all-time favourite children’s book, the time-slip story Charlotte Sometimes; and K.M.Peyton, author of the Flambards books among many others. I had the privilege of meeting her once and she was so lovely.
More recent writers who have influenced me include Eva Ibbotson, Hilary McKay (I just love her family stories) and Lydia Syson, who has written some terrific historical novels for teenagers, as well as the wonderful Katharine Rundell and Emma Carroll, both of whom are a great inspiration.
I am discovering new children’s authors all the time, and they all have an influence.