Catherine Johnson - writer

News

Arctic Hero has been chosen as one of the twelve books that are part of the Booked Up scheme for secondary school pupils in England! I am thrilled that one of my books is on the same list as writers like Elizabeth Laird, Siobhan Dowd, Malcolm Rose and other big names,

A Nest of Vipers was chosen as Sunday Times Children's book of the week this week, it had a really fantastic review, see books page for more info.

A NEST OF VIPERS is out in April. VIPERS has been fun to write, it's a thrilling romp that takes off where the short story in the UNHEARD VOICES collection ends and opens with 14 year old Cato Hopkins ready to be hanged for his crimes in Newgate prison. The story is a real roller coaster - he is part of a gang of confidence tricksters who are out to make their fortune - think of it like the TV series Hustle, only set in the 18th century with teenagers! The extra good news is that the rights have already been snapped up by the TV company Endemol, so here's hoping that one day VIPERS will make it as a costume drama.

There was a fantastic launch at The Dennis Severs House in Spitalfields, a beautiful 18th century house in London, it was in candlelight, with fires blazing in the grates and 21st century London seemed a long way away. Thank you so much to Lauren at Random House who set the evening up.

And Jo at Victoria Park Books organised a great morning event with my favourite primary school in the world Lauriston in Hackney. Special hellos to Anneke and Annaya - hope you're enjoying the book.

VIPERS got a lovely mention in the Times last Saturday and it's not even out. The reviewer, Amanda Craig, who knows more about children's books than most, said VIPERS was 'a captivating debut' (shame I'd written 10 books already!) and 'one to look out for'.

There's also my first non fiction book out this year - ARCTIC HERO which is published by Barrington Stoke, it's a biography of Matthew Henson, the first man at the North Pole. I went through a real snow phase a couple of years ago and this is the result. It's had some great press and I'll be talking about it this summer during my first visit to the Edinburgh Books Festival in August.

I've been in and out of schools working with loads in Hackney for Young Cultural Creators and with the Clwyd writing Squad in North Wales which was fab. I'll be in loads more schools over the next few weeks - working with Lambeth Academy and

Mossbourne in Hackney, and King Edward Camp Hill in Birmingham, May.

Oh and Tashan, if you're wondering where your poem is it's on my School Visits page.

In the meantime I'm working on a non fiction book about Con Men for Barrington Stoke again and a new story which is exciting but very new - so I don't want to talk about it too much except to say that it's set in London again, but this time the year is 1947. If you've never seen a film called Hue and Cry get it out of your film shop - if you've got a good one nearby rather than just Blockbuster! Well it's sort of like that only a lot darker..................I hope...

Catherine

I'm reading at the moment

I'm reading The Stuff of Nightmares by Malorie Blackman which has proved to be much darker than I was expecting and I read S.I. Martin's Jupiter Williams, terrified it would be too much like Vipers, but it's not- phew!

The other teen books I've loved recently include Accidental Friends, by Helena Pielichaty, Shadow Web, by N.M. Browne and Broken Soup, by Jenny Valentine.

I'm also reading loads of books for research including North Soho 999, which is exciting, and Austerity Britain, which isn't (but is still interesting).