Siobhan Parkinson is one of the most highly acclaimed children’s writers in Ireland with numerous awards to her name. A lyrical narrative and a very real and appealing story are the hallmark of her novels and certainly Kate is no exception to that. In this sweeping saga there’s also a terrific sense of time and place to 1930s Dublin so that you feel you’re there alongside the lovely Kate.
When Kate goes to her very first Irish dancing lesson she is smitten: It's like flying, she decides. It's the best thing she's ever done. But, coming from a poor family in Dublin's Liberties in the 1930s, how can Kate continue with her dancing? How could she ever manage to buy a fancy dancing costume?
'Extremely clever...teenage fiction at its most sophisticated' Children's Books in Ireland
Author
About Siobhan Parkinson
Having grown up in Galway and Donegal, Siobhán Parkinson has lived most of her adult life in her native Dublin. She studied English literature and German at Trinity, and went on to take her doctorate in English literature. She has worked for many years as an editor, a profession that very closely resembles that of writing. She concentrates more on her writing these days, but is also a very active member of the writers-in-schools scheme, and she gives workshops in creative writing and talks on her work in all sorts of situations. She has held various writing residencies and she is currently co-editor of Inis -- The Children's Books Ireland Magazine. Her books have won numerous awards and been translated into lots of languages, her favourites being Latvian, because it is so different, and Japanese, because it is back to front.
