Katherine Roberts

A Weekend with Mr Darcy I know, I know… the unicorn normally has his horn buried in a sword and sorcery book! But with a heroine called Dr Katherine Roberts and a dedication in the front: “ To the real Katherine Roberts for letting me use her name! ” how could I resist reading this one? The plot centres on a long weekend conference for fans of Jane Austen ’s novels, at which Dr KR is invited to speak. ( Heroine alert 1: The real KR doesn’t know her Austen from her Tolkien ). There’s the usual mix of conference goers, from the hopelessly romantic Robyn Love in her floaty dresses ( Heroine alert 2: The real KR has a secret bit of Robyn in her ) to the grumpy Austen purist Mrs Soames ( Heroine alert 3: The real KR is nothing like Mrs S! ). There is also a sprinkling of men, who have their pick of the women, since they are, perhaps unsurprisingly, outnumbered. With its idyllic setting at a regency manor house deep in the Hampshire countryside, the scene is set for a modern Au...

The unicorn’s excuse for a long gap in blog posts this time? The CILIP YLG Wendy Drewett Ireland Book Day in Belfast, at which my author was very kindly invited to talk about her new Pendragon Legacy series. The book display She flew out to Belfast via Manchester on Tuesday morning, taking not one but two planes. This meant I had to gallop very fast to keep up! Finally landing at the George Best Airport with its view of the famous cranes, we then took a scenic drive through the city with friendly school librarian Tara Corcoran to the Belfast Royal Academy, where (revived from her early morning start by chocolate croissants and hot tomato soup), Katherine spoke to Form 1 in a magnificent if rather chilly hall, since a frozen pipe had knocked out half their heating system. After the talk, the children crowded around the signing table to keep warm, while the drillers got to work searching out the leak 25 feet under the playground. Amazingly, everyone kept smiling. (...