Catherine O’Flynn, the youngest of six children, was born in Birmingham to Irish parents and grew up in the family’s sweetshop in Nechells.
Her writing has received various awards including the Costa First Novel Award, the Guildford Arts Book Prize and her books have been listed for the Booker, the Orange and the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize. She was named Waterstone’s Newcomer of the Year at the 2008 Galaxy British Book Awards.
Her Lori and Max novels for children based on her own experiences as a child detective have been shortlisted for Blue Peter and UKLA Book awards.
Catherine has been described as ‘the JG Ballard of Birmingham…finding poetry and meaning where others see merely boredom and dereliction.”