Hannah Kate

poet, short story writer and editor based in Manchester

North Manchester FM: Hannah’s Bookshelf, Saturday 23 June, 2-4pm

Join me on Saturday at 2pm for more from Hannah’s Bookshelf on North Manchester FM. This week, I’ll be joined by the fab Catherine Burns. Catherine is the author of The Visitors, a dark and unsettling psychological thriller set on the outskirts of a northern seaside resort.

Born in Chorlton (a long time ago, before it got trendy), Catherine went to Oakwood High School then Xavarian Sixth Form college in Rusholme. Her mum was the school caretaker at Oakwood and her dad was a communist shop steward – they used to support the Soviet Union in the Olympics. Briefly rebelling against her Marxist upbringing, she went to Trinity College Cambridge then became a bond trader in the City. After a few years of those Thatcherite shenanigans she decided to move to Moscow and study at the Kino Institute then came back to the UK and taught at uni for a bit. To drag herself out of a bout of depression when her mum died, she started writing The Visitors. She was writing really just to have a reason to get out of bed in the morning and never thought she would get a publishing deal. She was totally amazed when the book was picked up by Legend Press in the UK, Simon and Schuster in the USA, Hachette in Australia (also coming soon in the Czech Republic!).

I’ll be chatting to Catherine about The Visitors, writing and publishing. And, of course, she’ll be sharing her selections for this week’s Apocalypse Books.

Tune in on Saturday at 2pm on 106.6FM (if you’re in the North Manchester area) or listen online (if you’re further afield).

Missed the show? You can catch it again here:

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