Helen Grant (author)

Helen Grant

Helen Grant an author of Gothic novels, now based in Crieff, Scotland. She was a 2011 recipient of the Alex Awards.

Biography

She was educated at Dr Challoner's High School and went on to read classics at St Hugh's College, Oxford.[citation needed]

Her first novel, The Vanishing of Katharina Linden, was published by Penguin Books in April 2009.[1] It was shortlisted for the Booktrust Teenage Prize[2] and the CILIP Carnegie Medal.[3] Laura Wilson, writing for The Guardian, called it "an eerily subtle literary page-turner" that doesn't contain anything "remotely winsome or mawkish".[4] The Independent's Barry Forshaw praised the books ability to shift perceptions from the teenager protagonist's pursuit of mystical answers to adult's skepticism.[5] Grant states that the book was inspired by the legends of the German town in which she spent time while growing up.[6] The book has also been published in Germany as Die Mädchen des Todes, and has been published in Spain, Holland and the US.

Her latest novels are Ghost (2018), Too Near The Dead (2021) and Jump Cut (2023), the last of which is about a notorious lost movie, The Simulacrum. The Independent described Jump Cut as "a chilling, highly atmospheric tale."

Her short fiction and non fiction have been published in Supernatural Tales, All Hallows, Nightmare Abbey and various anthologies including Titan's recent In These Hallowed Halls. She has also provided a new translation of E.T.A. Hoffmann's Das Öde Haus in The Sandman & Other Night Pieces (Tartarus Press). Her book of uncanny short stories, The Sea Change & Other Stories, was published by Swan River Press in 2013.

References

  1. ^ "The Vanishing of Katharina Linden". Retrieved 19 May 2010.
  2. ^ Booktrust. "Booktrust Teenage Prize 2009". Booktrust. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  3. ^ "2010 CILIP CARNEGIE MEDAL SHORTLIST BUCKS THE VAMPIRE TREND". The CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Children's Book Awards. 23 April 2010. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  4. ^ Laura Wilson (14 March 2009). "The Vanishing of Katharina Linden". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  5. ^ Barry Forshaw (6 May 2009). "The Vanishing of Katharina Linden, By Helen Grant". The Independent. Archived from the original on 9 May 2022. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  6. ^ Helen Grant (8 May 2009). "The Vanishing of Katharina Linden: How a 300-year-old Miller Helped Solve a Fictional Crime". The Blog. The Huffington Post. Retrieved 30 March 2014.