Kate Davies
Writing Coach
Kate Davies is an award-winning novelist, screenwriter, and author. Her debut, In at the Deep End, won the Polari Prize. It was shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction, serialized for BBC Sounds, and has been optioned for TV. Her second novel, Nuclear Family, was a book of the year for The Times, Good Housekeeping, and Prima, and one of i paper’s funniest books of 2024. Kate’s books for children include picture books The Incredible Hotel and A Mystery at the Incredible Hotel, and comedy middle-grade series The Crims. She has written dozens of non-fiction children’s books, as well as writing for the screen for Cartoon Network and developing original TV ideas with Working Title and Bright Star. A Hawthornden Fellowship recipient and judge for the London Writers’ Awards, Kate’s writing has featured in the Guardian, Vogue, Marie Claire, and Stylist. After studying English at Oxford University, Kate worked as a children’s book editor for Usborne Publishing, Scholastic Children’s Books, and Walker Books among other publishers, where she commissioned and edited authors including John Boyne, Tracy Chevalier, and A. L. Kennedy, and illustrators including Jan Pienkowski, Laura Carlin, and Jim Kay.
Kate Davies is an award-winning novelist, screenwriter, and author. Her first book, In at the Deep End, won the Polari Prize, and her second novel, Nuclear Family, was a book of the year for The Times. She is known for her funny, frank contemporary fiction, propulsive plots, and witty dialogue, and her writing has won praise from authors including Sarah Waters (‘Davies writes with a glorious sureness of touch and impeccable comic timing’), Emma Jane Unsworth (‘Brazen and hilarious’), and Erin Kelly (‘I can’t think of another author who can make me ricochet so fast from painful empathy to helpless laughter’).
In at the Deep End sold at auction to The Borough Press in the U.K. and to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in the U.S. in a six-figure deal. It won the Polari Prize, was shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction, and was named a book of the year by Red magazine, and one of the best queer books of the year by Autostraddle and O, the Oprah Magazine. It was serialized for BBC Sounds and optioned for television. Her second novel, Nuclear Family, was published in 2024 to wide acclaim. It was named a Book of the Year by The Times, Good Housekeeping, and Prima, and one of the funniest books of 2024 by the i paper. She is currently working on her third novel, Good Books for Bad Children—her first historical novel, set in mid-century New York during the golden age of children’s publishing—which sold to The Borough Press on proposal.
Kate’s books for children include the picture books The Incredible Hotel and A Mystery at the Incredible Hotel (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books) and the comedy middle-grade series The Crims (HarperCollins Children’s Books). She has also written dozens of non-fiction children’s books, including Illumanatomy (Wide Eyed Editions), Fairy Tale Land (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books), and See Under the Sea (Usborne Publishing).
After graduating from Oxford University, Kate worked as a children’s book editor for 12 years across fiction, non-fiction, and picture books. She started as an editor and in-house writer at Usborne Publishing, then moved to Scholastic Children’s Books and Walker Books, ending her editorial career as Commissioning Editor at Frances Lincoln and Wide Eyed Editions. Kate commissioned and edited fiction by authors including John Boyne, Tracy Chevalier, and A. L. Kennedy, and worked with some of the world’s leading illustrators, including Jan Pienkowski, Laura Carlin, and Jim Kay.
For screen, Kate has written for the Cartoon Network comedies The Amazing World of Gumball and The Heroic Quest of the Valiant Prince Ivandoe, and has developed original TV ideas with Working Title and Bright Star. She is currently working on a BFI-funded script commission to adapt Sarah Schulman’s cult novel After Delores into a feature screenplay.
Kate’s journalism has appeared in the Guardian, Vogue, Marie Claire, and Stylist. She was awarded a Hawthornden Fellowship to work on Nuclear Family, and has judged the London Writers’ Awards.
Kate lives in London with her wife and son. When she isn’t writing novels, she writes lyrics for musicals, improvises full-length musicals with her improv team, Lost the Plot, and does quite a lot of Yoga with Adriene.
Kate’s Genres
- Romance
- Contemporary Fiction
- Literary Fiction
- Children’s Fiction
‘I wrote my first novel in an hour a day, before work, in the cafe opposite my office, and after work, at my friend’s house—we’d set a timer and write together in silence, drinking red wine and eating pizza. Those were some of the happiest days of my life. It’s the journey of writing a novel that I love most, not being published or being a full-time writer, or winning prizes. It’s the process of creating things that makes me feel alive, and most myself.’
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