The Great Hamster Massacre

About Katie Davies

Katie Davies studied English and Drama at university, where she wrote her first play, which was put on at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.  She has worked for a literary agent, as a special needs assistant, and has written articles for The Spectator and The Idler, as well as comedy sketches for Radio 4 show, 'One'.  She is married to the actor and comedian Alan Davies, with whom she has a baby daughter, and they live in London.

The Great Cat Conspiracy is third in a series of bittersweet, hilariously funny, domestic tales of life from the perspective of Anna - a young girl with a suspicious mind. It follows the 2010 Winner of the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize The Great Hamster Massacre and The Great Rabbit Rescue.

Davies based The Great Hamster Massacre on her childhood memories of her own pet hamsters coming to a bloody end, and the death of her grandfather. She said: "I remember being morbidly fascinated by death when I was seven or eight years old, and I wanted to explore how children deal with death in this story through the death of the nana." She added: "Although these are big issues, when you are writing through the perspective of a young child, they don’t always understand what is really happening and it’s that which gives you opportunities for comedy."

Author photo © Adam Scourfield