Catherine Bateson – författare

Following on from The Wish Pony, Catherine Bateson''s new novel returns to the world of magic realism to chart the stormy waters of a child''s grief.When grief strikes, you need an ally. For Mimi, that ally is Ableth, the wildly disobedient blue slave. He comes, he goes, he says and does whatever he likes, but he''s always there when Mimi needs him most, offering his own brand of crooked wisdom. Ableth says, ''You need to learn to look under the surface of things. Look at water. It''s just a great expanse of blue with little wavelets and riffs of foam. But underneath the surface are whole worlds of wonder. There are treasures and wrecks and bones . . .'' But it''s hard to look beneath the surface when your Mum is shipwrecked by despair, and you''re the only one left to keep things afloat. There''s a bric-a-brac shop to run, your first Christmas without a dad, and quite possibly a fugitive taking refuge in your back shed.This warm, captivating story celebrates the odd families we make, as well as those we are born into.

A classically heartwarming Catherine Bateson story, reissued with a stunning new Vintage Classics cover.Ruby''s mum is having a baby, but why does she need one of those when she''s already got a Ruby?To make matters worse, her best friend Sarah has just found another, BETTER friend. It seems like everyone is abandoning her. But when Ruby meets the mysterious Magda, who gives her a very special gift that might, just MIGHT, even be a bit magical, everything begins to change. This delightful story from the multi-award-winning author of BEING BEE and RAIN MAY AND CAPTAIN DANIEL will fill the young reader with wonder, hope and amazing possibilities.

A classically heartwarming Catherine Bateson story, reissued with a stunning new coverFor Magenta McPhee, life is good. It would be almost perfect if she could sort out her dad, who quite possibly needs saving - from himself.Desperate times call for desperate measures, even if those measures involve identity fraud on a dating site, and replying, as your father, to emails he doesn''t even know he''s been getting.But when pretending to be someone else is taking you away from your life''s purpose - writing the next great fantasy novel - things might have gone too far.In MAGENTA MCPHEE, Catherine Bateson has once again created a cast of delightfully real characters who will stay in the reader''s memory long after the last page is turned.