The Historical House is a unique collection of six intertwining novels by three highly regarded, award-winning authors. Each novel charts the life and times of the house at 6 Chelsea Walk, London, and the girls who lived there through some very different but fascinating and important periods of history. Historically strong, these are also dramatic stories with a real sense of atmosphere. Each novel sheds an impressively wide light on the social and economic picture of their time and each one stands alone but girls from 8 through to 11 or 12 will I feel want to read them all given the experience of my girls as together they create a powerful tour de force. The three new titles in the series, out now are Andie’s Moon, which is set in 1969, Cecily’s Portrait, set in 1895 and Mary Ann and Miss Mozart, which is set in 1764. The three backlist titles published a couple of years ago and reissued now to coincide with the new titles are equally inspiring are a girl’s desire to be a gardener at Kew around the time of its opening, Lizzie’s Wish, Polly’s March picks up on the suffragette movement in the early 20th century, whilst Josie under Fire features a girl caught up in the Blitz in 1941.
It is 1941 and London is suffering from the Blitz. Josie finds it hard to understand her brother's decision to be a conscientious objector. But when she moves to a new school and is drawn into tormenting one of her classmates, Josie learns what it means to stand up for her own beliefs. Ages 9+.
I was born in Hertford, England and brought up in Bexleyheath, which was then in Kent but is now part of Greater London. I have always loved books; my childhood favourites were the Narnia stories by C S Lewis and Kipling’s Jungle Books. By the age of ten I had decided I wanted to be a writer. Paper always seemed to be scarce in those days, but I used to write stories on the unused pages left in old school exercise books, or even on the backs of opened-out envelopes. In my early teens two things happened that helped me to feel like a real writer: my parents bought me my first typewriter – a second-hand Underwood - and I went in for a short story competition and won a place at the Writers’ Summer School at Swanwick in Derbyshire.
After leaving school I worked as a secretary for many years. Later I began training as a teacher, but decided teaching was not for me. However I read children’s novels as part of my course and was inspired to try writing one myself. My first novel was published in 1974, and since then I have written thirty books for children and young people of all ages.
My hobbies are reading, dancing, singing, and walking in the countryside. I am married, with two grown-up children, and now live in Shropshire.
