Cat Royal, the feisty little orphan-girl brought up in a theatre, is a brilliant narrator of this terrific action-packed adventure. There’s intrigue, politics, class warfare and a lot of fighting as well some highlights from behind the scenes as Cat unravels a mystery. She’s brave, cunning and smart but that doesn’t stop her from getting into some very dangerous fixes. Set in the world of the Drury Lane theatre in the 1790s this is full of historical detail about the prejudices of the time which carry important contemporary messages, too.
The Diamond of Drury Lane (A Cat Royal Novel) Synopsis
Set in 1790’s Covent Garden this book whisks you back to a bygone era. The narrator’s colourful slang and confident I’ll-tell-you-how-it-really-is, makes the story sparkle off the page.
Cat Royal is an orphan who lives at the back of the theatre in Drury Lane. She mingles with the high and low of society – from the actors onstage to the lords and ladies in the stalls to the barrow boys in the grimy marketplace. The tale is packed with local colour and authentic detail. And of course there is a gripping diamond mystery. What more could you want?
Julia Golding is the author of over thirty books for children and young adults. Her stories are set all over the world (and in some new worlds too) and span the centuries.
In her first year as a published author, she won the Nestlé Children’s Book Prize (Gold Award), was shortlisted for the Costa Children’s Book Award, longlisted for the prestigious Carnegie Medal, and won the Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize. In the US, Secret of the Sirens won the honor book medal of the Green Earth Book Award. Dragonfly won the 2012 Beehive Book Award, Young Adult Division, given by the Children's Literature Association of Utah and voted on by readers in schools and public libraries.
She has sold over half a million books worldwide and they are translated into more than fifteen languages.
Julia Golding lives in Oxford with her husband and three children.
Click here to read a Q&A with the author from top children's publisher Egmont.
