Zillah Bethell – författare

WINNER OF THE EDWARD STANFORD CHILDREN'S TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022A SUNDAY TIMES CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK Dive beneath the waves with this spell-binding adventure of friendship, forgiveness and bravery, set on the shores of Papua New Guinea, perfect for fans of Katherine Rundell and Eva Ibbotson."I want to be able to call the sharks. Teach me the magic and show me the ways."Blue Wing is desperate to become a shark caller, but instead she must befriend infuriating newcomer Maple, who arrives unexpectedly on Blue Wing's island. At first, the girls are too angry to share their secrets and become friends. But when the tide breathes the promise of treasure, they must journey together to the bottom of the ocean to brave the deadliest shark of them all... "The most incredible story...tender and wise, with themes of friendship, love, grief, revenge and acceptance." Michelle Harrison"Magnificent and beautiful." Sophie Anderson

SHORTLISTED FOR THE YOTO CARNEGIE MEDAL 2024SHORTLISTED FOR THE UKLA BOOK AWARD 2024SHORTLISTED FOR THE YOUNG QUILLS AWARD 2024The Song Walker is an extraordinary new story of friendship, discovery and courage from Zillah Bethell, author of The Shark Caller which won the Wales Book of the Year and the Edward Stanford Children's Travel Book of the Year 2022."There are three questions that I need to find the answers to:Where am I? What am I doing here? And... Who am I?"When a young girl wakes up in the middle of the desert, she has no idea who she is. She's wearing one shoe, a silky black dress, and she's carrying a strange, heavy case.She meets Tarni, who is on a mysterious quest of her own. Together, the two girls trek across the vast and ever-changing Australian Outback in search of answers. Except both are also hiding secrets..."A tense and twisty story about friendship and music, and how we might all find out who we really are." Sunday Times, Children's Book of the Week"A gripping and beautifully written adventure story with a terrific twist. " Irish Independent"A fabulous adventure." Holly Webb

'A thrilling dystopian fantasy' TelegraphSerendipity loves horses. No-one in Lahn Dan has ever seen one, apparently they died out before the Gases - but there are statues of them around the city, paintings and drawings too if you know where to look. And there's the little lost wooden horse Mama gave Serendipity when she was little. When Mama dies, Seren is taken under the wing of Professor Nimbus, a storyteller. Nimbus is kind and knowledgable, but Seren has started to question the Minister's rule and life beyond the high, impenetrable Emm Twenty-Five wall. Hidden among Mama's few possessions was a map which suggests there is life outside of Lahn Dahn, and a place where horses live and roam freely - out beyond the wall and the Minister's grip. So, with the help of a trader boy called Tab and his little dog Mouse, Serendipity heads into the unknown, searching for the beautiful creatures she's always dreamed of. But the Minister is behind them, determined to hunt her down. . .

I am how I've always been.My name is Auden Dare.I am eleven years old. Auden Dare has an unusual perspective on life: he cannot see in colour. He's always had this rare condition - and life is beginning to get harder for Auden. The war for water that is raging across the world is getting a little closer all the time. It hardly rains any more, anywhere. Everyone is thirsty all the time, and grubby, and exhausted. Auden has to learn to live without his father, who is away fighting, and has had to move to a new town with his mother, and start a new school, where everyone thinks he's a weirdo. But when he meets Vivi Rookmini, a smiling girl bright with cleverness, his hopes begin to lift. It soon becomes clear to Auden, though, that there are some strange things afoot in his new hometown. He and his mother have moved into the old cottage of his recently-dead uncle Jonah Bloom - a scientist and professor at the university. The place is in disarray - and although Auden's mother tells him it's because Jonah was a messy old thing, Auden knows differently. Someone else did this - someone who was looking for something of Jonah's. Auden had heard too that Jonah was working on something that could cure Auden's condition - could this be it? Then Auden and Vivi make an extraordinary discovery. Hidden away under the shed at the bottom of Jonah's garden is an engimatic and ingenious robot, who calls himself Paragon. A talking, walking, human-like robot. Apparently built by Jonah - but why? The answer to this will take Auden and Vivi on a thrilling journey of discovery as they seek to find out just what exactly Paragon is - and what link he has to Auden - and find that the truth is bigger and more wonderful than either of them could have imagined.

Le Temps des Cerises is a vivid, flamboyant historical novel careering through life in the Franco-Prussian war, in particular the siege of Paris in 1870, when the inhabitants all but starved in a frozen winter. While the details of the setting are keenly researched and acutely dramatised, Zillah Bethell brings events to life in her own rollercoaster style, one which challenges realistic reconstructions of history and hardship.The story begins with Sister Agnes giving birth to a baby girl, an event that triggers a crisis of faith in Sister Bernadine, who, it comes to light, has given up a baby many years previously. This baby is Eveline Renan, a beautiful seventeen year old desperate to escape her life of drudgery and eager to explode conventional gender and sexual roles. The age of war and revolution finds reflection in the hearts of individual characters, as they begin to question their own principles, expectations and modes of existence. Ultimately, however, the legitimate government comes back to reclaim the city from the Commune, resulting in the terrible events of la semaine sanglante – the bloody week. Faced with these horrors, the characters are forced to either return to their old ways, or stand firm in their newfound identities.Zillah Bethell is a graduate of Wadham College, Oxford and now lives in Tondu with her husband and two young children. She is also the author of Seahorses are Real (Seren, 2009), a haunting tale of love and tragedy that highlights the rare subject of domestic violence against men.

A slant examination of the life of women before children, with children and after the children have gone. Gwen is living in Paris in a garret suited to her artist's calling. She spends most of her life not painting. Her lover, Rodin, is becoming inattentive. Moth is at home looking after her children. Her days are lit up by visits to art class with her son - or rather, by Adam the art teacher. Elizabeth is waiting to die. She still enjoys writing to her correspondent on death row in America, though: It's a toss-up between the two of them as to who will go first.