Katherine Rundell

Author

Katherine Rundell is a British author and academic whose children's books and literary criticism have earned her recognition as one of the most talented and celebrated writers working in any genre. Her fiction for younger readers is characterised by its adventure, its intelligence, and its absolute refusal to condescend. Born in 1987,... Rundell grew up in Zimbabwe and Belgium before studying English at the University of Oxford, where she is now a Fellow of All Souls College — one of the most prestigious academic positions in the world. Rooftoppers (2013), her first widely published children's novel, follows a girl who believes her mother survived a shipwreck and searches the rooftops of Paris to find her. The book won the Waterstones Children's Book Prize and the Blue Peter Book Award. The Wolf Wilder (2015), set in revolutionary Russia, and The Explorer (2017), about four children stranded in the Amazon, continued her run of critically acclaimed, adventurous children's fiction. The Good Thieves (2019) was a heist story set in 1920s New York. Impossible Creatures (2023) launched an epic fantasy series about a boy who discovers a hidden archipelago of mythical creatures. The Book of Hopes (2020), edited by Rundell, collected stories, poems, and essays from over one hundred authors and illustrators for the benefit of NHS Charities Together during the pandemic. Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne (2022) was a non-fiction work about the poet John Donne that won the Baillie Gifford Prize, demonstrating Rundell's brilliance as a literary scholar alongside her gifts as a storyteller. The audiobook editions of Rundell's books are wonderful, with narrators capturing the adventure, wit, and beauty of her writing. Her books and audiobooks are essential for readers of all ages who value imagination, courage, and prose that soars. Read more Show less