Steph Swainston started writing stories set in the Fourlands in 1982, when she was eight years old. Twenty-six years of development later, the Castle books are both great entertainment – with giant Insects and immortals, and literature – a source of observations about our world, the characters we meet every day and the trials we face.
/The Year of Our War /(2004), /No Present Like Time/ (2005) and /The Modern World /(2007) see the Fourlands through the eyes of Jant Shira, the Emperor’s Messenger; half Awian and half Rhydanne, the only man in the world who can fly. Steph is finishing the fourth novel in the sequence: /Above the Snowline/, to be published by Gollancz in April 2009.
Steph studied archaeology at Cambridge and the University of Wales. Her sense of wonder at the deep past and love of weird fauna and flora adds to her ‘Alice in Wonderland’ wordplay and makes her books both fascinating and fun.
Steph lives with chronic back pain from a car crash six years ago – which was, of course, her fault for driving like a speed freak – but she doesn’t let it stop her. She also loves the outdoors; a good walk followed, if at all possible, by a glass or two of whisky.