Kate Wiseman

Kate Wiseman

A working-class girl growing up in the 70s, Kate finally managed to get to university at the age of 38, graduating with a First in English and Creative Writing. She was one of the ‘Ritas’ featured in the BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour programme commemorating the play, Educating Rita.  

Kate describes herself as a late developer.  She didn’t start trying to achieve her ambition of becoming a published writer until she was 50. Her series of Gangster School novels were shortlisted for several awards and have been published in four countries. Since then, she has written several other novels for teens and middle grade readers. The Red Tunic is her first novel for adults. It won the Eyelands Award for Historical Fiction in 2020. The following year, her historical novel, The Mudlark Mysteries: The Grinning Throat, won the Eyelands Award for Children’s writing.  

Kate lives in Chichester and works as a tutor in English. Her fascinations are history, English and mudlarking, and she is a licensed mudlark. Her ambition is to find an intact Bellarmine jug.