Kate Summerscale

Author and winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction

Kate Summerscale was born in 1965 and was brought up in Japan, Chile and England. She is the author of the bestselling The Queen of Whale Cay about Joe Carstairs, "fastest woman on water", which won a Somerset Maugham award in 1998 and was shortlisted for the Whitbread biography award. She has also judged various literary competitions including the Booker Prize. She lives in London with her son.

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher; or The Murder at Road Hill House (about the Constance Kent case), published by Bloomsbury in April 2008, has been awarded the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction 2008.

Kate has worked for The Independent, and The Guardian, and from 1995 to 1996 she wrote and edited obituaries for The Daily Telegraph, where later she became literary editor.

Fact file

Name: Kate Summerscale

Education: Oxford University and Stanford University

Date of birth: 1965

Current home: London

Awards: 2008 - Samuel Johnson Prize, 1998 - Somerset Maugham Award