by Mary Hoffman
www.pennydolan.com
ADÈLE GERAS
Adèle Geras was born in 1944 in Jerusalem. She was educated at Roedean School and St Hilda’s College Oxford, where she read French and Spanish. She’s been an actress and singer and a teacher of French but since 1976 has written full time. She’s published more than 90 books for children and young adults. Her novel Troy was shortlisted for the Whitbread Award and Highly Commended for the Carnegie Medal. Together with Linda Newbery and Ann Turnbull, she has written two novels (Lizzie’s Wish and Cecily’s Portrait) for the Historical House series. A Candle in the Dark is for younger children and deals with the subject of the Kindertransports. She has published four novels for adults and a fifth (Cover Your Eyes) is due in 2014. She lives in Cambridge.
www.adelegeras.com
MARY HOFFMAN
Mary Hoffman finds that Italy and Italians often creep into her stories, as they do in her teenage Stravaganza series for Bloomsbury and her historical novels The Falconer’s Knot, Troubadour and David. She also writes for younger children, as in her Amazing Grace books and the Great Big Books series with Ros Asquith. Mary has written over a hundred books and lives in a converted barn in Oxfordshire, with her husband. They have three grown-up daughters.
Mary is currently obsessed with the Tower of London and Shakespeare’s theatres.
www.maryhoffman.co.uk
DIANNE HOFMEYR
Dianne Hofmeyr grew up on the southern tip of Africa and taught art and ceramics. She lives in London and writes picture books as well as young adult novels with a particular interest in Ancient Egypt and stories set in Africa. Her YA novel set in South Africa during the peace process before Nelson Mandela’s release from prison won the M-Net Award. Curiosity and a love of maps and old letters have made her a writer.
Dianne’s books are translated into more than 20 languages and two of her novels have been IBBY Honours books. Her latest novel is Oliver Strange and the Ghosts of Madagascar. Her latest picture books are The Magic Bojabi Tree and Zeraffa Giraffa.
www.diannehofmeyr.com
MARIE∼LOUISE JENSEN
Marie-Louise Jensen was born in Henley-on-Thames. Her early years were largely devoted to the reading of as many books as possible. Marie-Louise studied Scandinavian and German at the UEA and has lived and worked in Denmark and Germany as well as England. She did an MA in Writing for Young People in 2005 and has been writing teen historical fiction ever since.
www.marie-louisejensen.co.uk
CATHERINE JOHNSON
Catherine Johnson would have her own outdoor heated swimming pool and at least two horses if she won the lottery. She has written books for children and young adults and also for radio, TV and film. Her latest book, Sawbones, was published in October 2013.
www.catherinejohnson.co.uk
KATHERINE LANGRISH
Katherine Langrish is the internationally published author of several children’s fantasy novels, including the Viking trilogy Troll Fell, Troll Mill and Troll Blood, recommended in the School Library Association’s Top 160 Books for Boys, republished in one volume as West of the Moon. Her fourth book, Dark Angels (US title The Shadow Hunt) was listed as one of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books for Children 2010, and the US Board on Books for Young People’s Outstanding International Books 2011. Her writing is strongly influenced by folklore and legends, and has been compared with Alan Garner’s.
Katherine lives in Oxfordshire and is currently writing a two-part YA dystopia. She blogs about all aspects of myth, fantasy and legends at steelthistles.blogspot.co.uk
www.katherinelangrish.co.uk
JOAN LENNON
Joan Lennon was born in Canada long enough ago to have experienced history first hand. She has lived in Scotland most of her adult life. She has a PhD from St Andrews University and has endeavoured, unsucessfully, to get her four sons to address her as Dr Mummy.
Her medieval series for 8–12 year olds, The Wickit Chronicles, follows the adventures of a boy called Pip with the voice of an angel and a delightful though dangerous-to-know gargoyle (technically a grotesque) called Perfect. In her Victorian series, The Slightly Jones Mysteries, also for 8–12s, her heroine’s ambition is to be as great a detective as Mr Sherlock Holmes, and no baffling clues, mad scientists, Egyptian mummies or Scottish ghosts are going to stop her.
Joan is now pondering which historical period to write about next.
www.joanlennon.co.uk
SUE PURKISS
Sue Purkiss taught English in various settings before becoming a writer. She has been a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Exeter University, helping students with their essay skills, and now fulfils the same role at Bristol University, as well as reviewing and teaching creative writing to adults. Her most recent book, Emily’s Surprising Voyage, was long-listed for the Carnegie Medal. Set in the nineteenth century, it tells the story of two children travelling to Australia on board the first iron ship, the SS Great Britain. Her previous book, Warrior King, was a novel about the great Dark Age leader, Alfred the Great, and his very remarkable daughter, Aethelflaed.
www.suepurkiss.com
CELIA REES
Celia Rees has written over twenty books for teenagers, and has become a leading writer for Young Adults with an international reputation. Her books have been translated into 28 languages and she has been shortlisted for the Guardian, Whitbread and WHSmith Children’s Book Awards. Her books Witch Child, Sorceress and Pirates! have won awards in the UK, USA, France and Italy. Her latest book, This is Not Forgiveness, a dark, contemporary thriller, has been nominated for several UK national awards and was one of Kirkus Reviews Best Teen Books of 2012 in the US.
Celia lives in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, and divides her time between writing, talking to readers in schools and libraries, reviewing and teaching creative writing.
www.celiarees.com
KATHERINE ROBERTS
Katherine Roberts won the Branford Boase Award in 2000 for her first novel, Song Quest. Before becoming a published author, she trained as a mathematician at the University of Bath and wrote computer programs (which is her excuse for any spelling mistakes). Marriage took her to the Welsh border country, where she worked with racehorses while writing her first stories for fantasy and horror magazines. She currently lives beside the sea in the southwest of England, in the town where she grew up.
Katherine’s books for young readers include the Pendragon Legacy quartet about King Arthur’s daughter, published by Templar.
www.katherineroberts.co.uk
ANNE ROONEY
Anne Rooney can’t fly planes and hasn’t mysteriously crashed into the Thames – although there’s a good chance she would if she tried flying a plane. She lives in a perpetual state of chaos with several chickens, a tortoise, some ferrets and some daughters.
Instead of crashing planes into estuaries, she spends her days writing both truth and lies for young people, and just the truth for adults – around 160 books in all. Each summer she spends two months teaching creative writing, which is also not dangerous.
www.annerooney.com
LESLIE WILSON
Leslie Wilson is the author of four critically acclaimed historical novels, two for adults, Malefice and The Mountain of Immoderate Desires (which won the Southern Arts Prize), and two for young adults, Last Train from Kummersdorf (shortlisted for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize) and Saving Rafael (nominated for the Carnegie Medal, Highly Commended for the Southern Schools Book Award, shortlisted for the Lancashire Book of the Year Award and longlisted for the Wirral Paperback of the Year Award).
Leslie has lived in England, Germany and Hong Kong. She now lives in Berkshire with a husband and a dog, and has two daughters and three grandsons.
www.lesliewilson.co.uk
Now investigate the inspiring stories of
more great women in history:
Margaret of Scotland
Saint and monarch (c.1045-1093)
Gráinne O’Malley
Pi
rate (1530-c.1603)
Catrin of Berain
Noblewoman, ‘the Mother of Wales’ (1534-1591)
Queen Elizabeth I
Monarch (1533-1603)
Sarah Churchill
Advisor to Queen Anne (1590-1676)
Caroline Herschel
Astronomer (1750-1848)
Dido Belle
Aristocrat and daughter of a slave (1761-1804)
Elizabeth Fry
Prison reformer (1780-1845)
Harriet Martineau
Author, a founder of sociology (1802-1876)
Ada Lovelace
First ‘computer programmer’ (1815-1852)
Queen Victoria
Monarch (1819-1901)
Florence Nightingale
Founder of modern nursing (1820-1910)
Isabella Bird
Explorer and natural historian (1831-1904)
Mary Kingsley
Writer and explorer (1862-1900)
Nancy Astor
First female MP (1879-1964)
Noor Inayat Khan
World War II Allied spy (1914-1944)
Rosalind Franklin
Pioneering scientist (1920-1958)
A TEMPLAR BOOK
First published in the UK in 2014 by Templar Publishing,
an imprint of The Templar Company Limited,
Deepdene Lodge, Deepdene Avenue, Dorking, Surrey, RH5 4AT, UK
www.templarco.co.uk
This ebook edition first published in 2014 by Templar Publishing
All rights reserved
Copyright © 2014
Tasca’s Secret © 2014 by Katherine Roberts
The Lady of the Mercians © 2014 by Sue Purkiss
The Queen’s Treasure © 2014 by AdèleGeras
All Shall Be Well © 2014 by Katherine Langrish
Learn to Die © 2014 by Mary Hoffman
The Phoenix Bride © 2014 by Dianne Hofmeyr
A Night at the Theatre © 2014 by Marie-Louise Jensen
An Unimportant Woman © 2014 by Penny Dolan
Best After Storms © 2014 by Joan Lennon
The Lad That Stands Before You © 2014 by Catherine Johnson
Return to Victoria © 2014 by Celia Rees
The Colours of the Day © 2014 by Anne Rooney
Please Can I Have a Life? © 2014 by Leslie Wilson
Cover images © pixeldreams.eu/shutterstock.com
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
ISBN 978-1-78370-036-3