Catherine Norton's Blog

It’s an odd truth that in order to work out where we are on Earth, we have to look outwards, into space.

Charles Dickens wrote Oliver Twist when death rates were high and people often lost loved ones to illness, including children or parents. Those days are thankfully over—except, it seems, in children’s books. Why do we still write so many stories about orphans?

More than just colourful clothes - did you know the science of dye-making has given us miracle cures and deadly weapons, too?

Humans have hundreds of ways to predict the future and keep inventing more. Is it just for fun, or does it reflect something deeper?

Here you’ll find posts about the history and ideas that have inspired my books, as well as short essays on children’s literature and even the occasional interview or book review. Scroll down to browse or click on a tag to explore a topic.

I’m thrilled to announce that my new middle-grade novel will be published by HarperCollins in August 2023. The Fortune Maker is set in London before the First World War, in a world of factories and slums, chemistry and clairvoyance, strikers and suffragettes. Find out more here.

Watch this space for an announcement SOON about my new novel for middle grade readers…

Why does Christmas, with all its sparkling lights and paper snowflakes, evoke a sense of breathless enchantment? In the Anglo tradition, wherever we are in the world, we fetishise northern European winter landscapes as places that ‘contain’ the magic of Christmas, mimicking them with our pine trees laden with tinsel and our gingerbread houses crusted… Continue reading Why Christmas is a portal fantasy

‘…if we pass this post and lantern either we shall find strange adventures or else some great change of our fortunes.’ --C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

In a climate change-affected dystopian setting, recognisable as the author’s home of New Zealand although not explicitly named, Snow is a young teenage girl whose stepmother wants her dead. To this end, she tasks a hunter with taking Snow into the forest near their mountain chateau, killing her and bringing back her heart as proof.… Continue reading Review: Snow by Gina Inverarity