Catherine MacPhail

(born January 1946 -) - Greenock

Catherine MacPhail
© John Mitchell

Catherine MacPhail shot to success when her first children's novel Run Zan Run won the Kathleen Fidler Award for new Scottish fiction. Since then Catherine has earned a reputation as a gritty, direct novelist, writing about everyday situations, such as bullying in Run Zan Run and teenage pregnancy (in Roxy's Baby) and empathising brilliantly with her young readers as a result.

Catherine always wanted to be a writer but with a job and a family to take care of, time was hard to come by: "I didn't think wee lassies like me could do things like that. It was only after my children were born that I went to the local writers club; there, I was given the confidence to start sending my stories away."

Since then she has never looked back, receiving widespread acclaim for her next two pieces of work; Fighting Back and Fugitive. Moreover, she is the creator and writer of the radio series My Mammy and Me.

Her latest children's novel is Nemesis: Ride of Death, which was published in May 2008.

Jaime Milne

Key titles

  • Cover scan of The Beast Within
    The Beast Within
    Ram has cheated death - four times. Who is so desperate to kill him? And why? On the run, Ram finds himself on desolate moorland. He knows he is being stalked, but this time by something less than human.
  • Cover scan of Fighting Back
    Fighting Back
    When Kerry and her mum move to a block of council flats, they find it hard to settle in especially as they seem to have annoyed their neighbours who turn out to be more dangerous than either of them realise.
  • Cover scan of Into The Shadows
    Into The Shadows
    Ram has no memory of who he is, his background or where he has come from. He awakes in a darkened corridor of a block of flats with no idea of how he has got there. And then, the lift doors nearby open and inside is a dying man. Ram is now the murder suspect and on the run.
  • Cover scan of Ride Of Death
    Ride Of Death
    In this shocking conclusion to the Nemesis series, Ram faces one final deadly confrontation with the Dark Man and evil forces more powerful than he could ever imagine. The time for running is over.
  • Cover scan of Run Zan Run
    Run Zan Run
    Katie is being bullied at school. One day she is cornered by Ivy and her fellow bullies on the town dump when suddenly, a girl called Zan rises from the rubbish and leaps to Katie's defence. But Zan is not willing to talk to Katie - all she wishes is that Katie keeps her identity a secret.
  • Cover scan of Sinister Intent
    Sinister Intent
    Strange lights in the night sky, people disappearing, a mysterious man calling himself Destiny. Ram has run straight into another mystery. But the people who go missing are people no one will miss, except Ram and the dotty old woman who rescues him.
  • Cover scan of Traitor's Gate
    Traitor's Gate
    Spider and Lizzie are bored on their school trip to Edinburgh Castle - until they're transported back to the siege that took place 300 years ago. This book features a gripping narrative with stacks of fun facts about Scottish history, aimed at reluctant readers. Illustrations appear on almost every page.

Bibliography