Katharine Quarmby

Katharine Quarmby is an award-winning British social affairs writer and film-maker, specialising in disability, equality and human rights. Her first book for adults, Scapegoat, about disability targeted violence, was published by Portobello Books in June 2011. It won the Ability Media International Prize for Literature in November 2011. In February 2012 Katharine's five year campaign to raise the profile of disability targeted violence was recognised by the Guardian newspaper and Private Eye magazine, when she was shortlisted for the Paul Foot Award for campaigning journalism 2011. She is now writing her second non-fiction book for adults, The Outcasts , about Gypsies, Roma and Travellers, on whom she has reported for the last five years.

She also writes books for children and writes about children's literature. Her last book, for the publisher Frances Lincoln, was described by the Sunday Times as "not for the squeamish! For children who like their food familiar and their rhymes revolting", as a "joy of
a picture book!" by the School Librarian and as "Savory fare for fussy eaters" by Kirkus Reviews. It was published in paperback in April 2012 and Katharine is hard at work on a follow-up.