Kathy Watson

Kathy Watson is a biographer. Her first book, The Crossing (Hodder Headline, 2000), told the story of Matthew Webb, the first man to swim the English Channel. A passionate swimmer herself, Kathy became fascinated with the Victorian boy’s own hero when she learnt that his post-Channel venture was an attempt to swim Niagara. Her second book, The Devil Kissed Her, was published by Bloomsbury in 2004 and was a major full-length study of the children’s writer, Mary Lamb. Described by one critic as ‘a model of good biographical writing’, the book is a compassionate portrait of Lamb who, in a fit of madness, killed her own mother. She went on to write Tales from Shakespeare. Insanity, creativity, how people overcome disaster were among the themes explored. Both books were also published to critical acclaim in the United States.

Kathy works as a freelance feature writer and editor, and is a teacher of journalism at City University. She lives in north London with her family and swims several miles a week. She is writing a novel, one that she describes as being ‘intriguing and bonkers’.