Katherine Roberts

I was brought up as a Roman Catholic, although my family members were pretty laid back about the whole thing. My Irish nana had married a Yorkshire Methodist, and although my Polish father was nominally a Roman Catholic, having come through the war and lost most of his family in the process, he was sceptical about matters of doctrine, and provided a useful balance to the ferocious stuff we were occasionally subjected to at school. Mum, on the other hand, had a strong and abiding Christian faith which she maintained throughout her life, and since dad loved her very much, he kept his own counsel. He would debate with me though. Most writers of prose fiction are – like Humpty Dumpty - able to believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast. As I grew older – and began to write - we sometimes locked horns about spirituality. He was a scientist, but he was the kindest of men and our arguments never lasted. I attended a small RC primary school in a rather poor part of Leeds Our i...

My guest today is Templar author C J Busby who, apparently, likes frogs... The frogs appear in Frogspell , the first book in a fun new series about boy wizard Max Pendragon and his brave sister Olivia. Yes, Max and Olivia Pendragon ... you heard right, which makes me doubly excited to have C J Busby on this blog, since her books are set at King Arthur's Camelot, which means her young hero and heroine are distantly related to Rhianna Pendragon, the heroine of Sword of Light! (The unicorn reckons distant cousins twice removed, but you'll have to make up your own mind about that...) Frogspell tells of Max's (mis)adventures as he tries to prove to his father Sir Bertram that he has enough talent to become a great wizard like Merlin. His father wants Max to become a knight, so the only way Max can avoid getting beaten up by the other squires in training is by winning the Novices' Spell Contest at Camelot, for which he needs a r...

One of the best things about being in control of my backlist is that I can give you an ebook treat for the holidays. So for five days over Easter, my first Seven Fabulous Wonders title The Great Pyramid Robbery will be free to download for your Kindle from amazon uk and amazon us . (Offer ends midnight 9th April 2012) Originally published in 2001 by HarperCollins Children’s Books, The Great Pyramid Robbery is my best selling UK title so far and my most loaned title in UK libraries. The Seven Fabulous Wonders series was never published in the US, which means US readers can now get hold of these books easily for the first time in this digital format. Never mind all that... what's the story? Senu and his mischievous “ka” (otherworldly double) Red are sucked into a plot to rob the Great Pyramid at Giza while the workers are busy building the second pyramid nearby. It is meant to be the perfect crime, but the robbers have seriously misjudged the curse on the dead pha...

You've heard of mad March hares? Well unicorns go a little crazy in the spring too. So each month until further notice, I'll be bringing you one of Katherine's short stories, absolutely free! And since I'm a unicorn, my choice for April is one of her very first published stories... THE LAST MAIDEN © Katherine Roberts A woman ran out of the wood clutching a bundle close to her breast, heavy and still. She stumbled over a tree stump and staggered up again. Then she began to scream. Down by the river's edge, the unmarried girls stared up the hill. They stood motionless for perhaps the space of a heartbeat, then dropped their work part done and rushed to surround the woman, who was already being quizzed by the Summer Guard. All save one. One solitary figure who remained up to her waist in the fast flowing water, hardly able to climb the shallow bank unaided. The one they always forgot.      With a patient sigh, Shalyr fastened the skirt she was washing to a line...