To celebrate the release of her new book The Revelry, we asked author Katherine Webber to open up in an exclusive piece for Female First, sharing seven facts all about her that she thinks her readers may like to know!
Here's what she had to reveal...
1. I grew up living next door to two sisters who were, and still are, my best friends. As children we played elaborate, imaginative games where we made up entire worlds. We were so sure that the other one could ‘see’ what the others ‘saw’ we said we shared an imagination. My new book, The Revelry, is dedicated to these friends, because our childhood play shaped me as a writer, and as a person.
2. The Revelry is set in a mysterious town with an even more mysterious wood in the middle of it—I’ve always been fascinated and drawn to woodland spaces. While I didn’t have a wood to get lost in as a child (I lived in a very suburban town in California) there was one tree behind my house that I thought of as ‘my tree’. I used to climb it and pretend I was in a vast, enchanted forest. One of the things I love about London is how many green spaces there are hidden in it.
3. I was a very well behaved teenager with one exception – I used to frequently sneak out of my house at night to meet up with friends, or sometimes see boys I had crushes on, so my characters in my YA novels always sneak out too. To this day I don’t know if my parents know that I used to sneak out (and I hope they don’t read this!) I think there is something magical about being out late at night, when the rest of the world is fast asleep. This is also one of my favourite times to write.
4. I’m originally from California, and went to university there, but I spent a year of university studying abroad in Hong Kong. While I was there, I met my future husband and some of my dearest friends. It wasn’t just the people that I met that I loved, the city itself had such a huge impact on me that I ended up moving back to Hong Kong to work while I was in my early twenties. I lived there for another three years, and was able to travel all over Asia for both work and holiday.
5. I can speak Mandarin Chinese, and I know how to order food and swear in Cantonese.
6. I love writing about grandparents – probably because I am so close to my own. I was lucky to grow up both sets of grandparents very involved in my childhood. Now that I’m a mother myself, seeing the special bond between my daughters and their own grandparents develop is really wonderful.
7. The very first time I ever visited London was when I was ten years old – and I have loved the city ever since. It feels like a dream come true that I get to live here now and raise my children here.
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