Kathy Watson – författare

_______________''Kathy Watson has achieved the rare combination of sensitive, meticulous research with readability'' - Virginia Rounding, Sunday Times''Careful, intelligent, absorbing ... Watson tells Mary''s story in a sensible, matter-of-fact way, which makes it all the more moving, and the Lambs'' achievements all the more remarkable'' - Allan Massie, Scotsman''Riveting ... Her story of this extraordinary relationship is surely one of the most bizarre and heart-rending imaginable, and offers an indelible portrait of two of literature''s most intriguing figures'' - Val Hennessy, Daily Mail_______________A stunning biography of Mary Lamb, who murdered her mother with a knife before going on to write Tales From Shakespeare with her brother CharlesOn 22 September 1796 Mary Lamb murdered her mother with a carving knife. However, she was neither imprisoned nor punished, but instead released into the care of her younger brother Charles. They went on to share their home, friends and work for nearly forty years. They wrote the children''s classic Tales from Shakespeare together, ran a literary agency, and had a salon frequented by Coleridge, Wordsworth, Hazlitt and Godwin. However, the Lambs'' popularity existed in the shadow of Mary''s recurring bouts of mania and depression and she was incarcerated in a mental institution for several months of each year. This memorable portrait of one of literature''s most romantic figures examines this extraordinary brother-sister relationship and, amidst the many contradictions and chaotic episodes of her life, uncovers the real Mary Lamb.

A debut historical fiction for fans of Kristin Hannah and John Steinbeck, Orphans of the Living follows the Stovall family’s early 20th-century quest for home and redemption as they confront racism, poverty, and inequality across the American South and West. In the shadow of the Great Depression and Jim Crow south of the 1930s, an impoverished white family escapes—with the help of Black sharecroppers—from a vengeful Mississippi plantation overseer intent on lynching them. Arriving in California to start a new life, Barney and Lula Stovall are haunted by the past, the children they’ve left behind, and the daughter they cannot love or protect. Orphans of the Living follows the peripatetic life of the Stovall family, woven from four parallel stories: Barney and Lula Stovall, and two of their nine children, Glen and Nora Mae. Their California sojourn—from their hardscrabble dairy farm, to the brig at the San Francisco Presidio, to the building of the Golden Gate Bridge—lead them on paths toward each other and forgiveness. But redemption doesn''t come to them all.

_______________‘Kathy Watson has achieved the rare combination of sensitive, meticulous research with readability' - Virginia Rounding, Sunday Times‘Careful, intelligent, absorbing ... Watson tells Mary's story in a sensible, matter-of-fact way, which makes it all the more moving, and the Lambs' achievements all the more remarkable' - Allan Massie, Scotsman‘Riveting ... Her story of this extraordinary relationship is surely one of the most bizarre and heart-rending imaginable, and offers an indelible portrait of two of literature's most intriguing figures' - Val Hennessy, Daily Mail_______________A stunning biography of Mary Lamb, who murdered her mother with a knife before going on to write Tales From Shakespeare with her brother CharlesOn 22 September 1796 Mary Lamb murdered her mother with a carving knife. However, she was neither imprisoned nor punished, but instead released into the care of her younger brother Charles. They went on to share their home, friends and work for nearly forty years. They wrote the children's classic Tales from Shakespeare together, ran a literary agency, and had a salon frequented by Coleridge, Wordsworth, Hazlitt and Godwin. However, the Lambs' popularity existed in the shadow of Mary's recurring bouts of mania and depression and she was incarcerated in a mental institution for several months of each year. This memorable portrait of one of literature's most romantic figures examines this extraordinary brother-sister relationship and, amidst the many contradictions and chaotic episodes of her life, uncovers the real Mary Lamb.