Agatha Bilke's first adventure, The Awful Tale of Agatha Bilke was shortlisted for numerous awards and girls in particular from 7 upwards will be thrilled to hear that another adventure is now out. Operation Ward 10 is totally original, completely off-the-wall story that will have enormous appeal to fans of Lemony Snicket and Philip Ardagh. Wherever Agatha goes chaos ensues and having got herself stuck in a hospital she performs some major surgery and highjacks an ambulance. The results are alarming but when she gets to meet the most obnoxiously nice girl, things get well and truly out of hand. Pattenden's voice is very different from many contemporary authors and the wonderfully eccentric storyline will have kids bent double in laughter. Make sure you check out the other books in the Agatha Bilke series, The Awful Tale of Agatha Bilke and Paris Match.
Agatha is in trouble, big trouble. After a bizarre accident involving a designer handbag and a can of hairspray in the park, Agatha Bilke is admitted to the children's ward of the Rottingdean Hospital. She is soon surprised to find herself feeling quite at home among her fellow patients - kids like Lynda Peanuts, a girl with an emotional attachment to her drip, and Holbeck Folbeck, a trust-fund boy with some very bad habits. But when x-ray reveals a ghastly truth - the sort of thing you wouldn't want anyone to know about - Agatha decides she's got to get out, quick. In this hilarious new adventure, The Worst Girl Ever Known to Humnaity performs routine stomach surgey, carajacks an ambulance and uncovers the cause of a National Disaster. But has she murdered matron? And can she stop 'Holby' finding out her terrible secret?
Siân Pattenden is an illustrator, author and journalist who lives in London.
She has written for publications such as Smash Hits, NME, The Face, the Guardian, Independent and many more. She is also the author of How to Make it in the Music Business (Virgin Books). She has appeared on national radio and TV as a so-called pop pundit.
Earlier in her life, as a child, she did some acting (see ‘other stuff’) and wrote a play which went to Edinburgh called Steven Newman Doesn’t Eat Quiche. At 16, she was the fringe’s youngest playwright ever. That was in the ’80s.
She has just illustrated the playing cards for “Unhappy Families” by Portobello Games (see Portfolio for examples), as featured in the Daily Telegraph and London Evening Standard.
