Cathy Cassidy has written seven bestselling novels and a journal, Dreams and Doodles Daybook. Her latest book is called Angel Cakes.

Cathy was born in Coventry in 1962, and now lives in the Galloway hills in Scotland, with her Irish husband, Liam, and her two teenage children.  She has two dogs, Kelpie and Daisy, three cats, Lily, Pickle and Pepper and three rabbits called Midnight, Snowdrop and Brambles.

Cathy wrote her first book when she was eight, a picture book for her younger brother. From the age of twelve she sent stories to a magazine called Jackie. ‘I bombarded them with stories for 4 years,’ she admits. ‘I learnt a lot from that process – I used to study the stories that got published in the magazine to see where I’d gone wrong.’

A little later she had stories published in another magazine called Look Now. ‘I was so proud and happy,’ she says. ‘After I left art college, I landed a job in Jackie magazine. And they remembered who I was. I worked my way up to being Fiction Editor and it was the best training ever.’

But Cathy’s dream had always been to write a novel. She started writing a historical novel for adults but never finished it. Then she wrote what was to be her first published novel for teens, Dizzy.  ‘It took three months to write,’ she says. ‘Then I was so nervous of sending it to anyone I put it in a drawer. My dreams of being published would have been shattered if it was rejected.  Eventually a friend persuaded me to send it to 3 different agents. Once replied within two days. Dizzy went on to be published (by Puffin) and it was a dream come true.’

Cathy loves Ireland. ‘If you stand on the coast in West Cork you could be on the edge of the world,’ she says. ‘I love wild places. I have loads of friends in Kerry and Cork and of course, my husband is Irish.’