The Lily and the Lion (51 page)

‘My first lasting love? Hmm, I was fourteen when a friend handed me a book about a heroine in France during the 15th Century, and I fell in love with everything medieval. But maybe it didn't start there. Come to think of it, when I was younger I devoured Alan Garner's tales of sleeping knights in
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen
, progressing to King Arthur and Ivanhoe, but somehow that French heroine always stayed with me.'

Catherine was born in Burnley, England, but moved to Australia when she was eleven months old. She grew up in Elizabeth, South Australia, relocating to Queensland when she was fourteen. She worked in communications, before finally deciding to fulfil her dream as a writer. The raw draft of her first novel, a Viking romance, won an encouragement award of $1,000 from six hundred entries, in a popular women's magazine competition. A member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, she visited Europe in 2006 to witness the annual re-enactment of
The Battle of Agincourt
, and then travelled extensively throughout Britain and France, researching material for
Lions and Lilies.

She lives on a small bushland property, on a mountain range west of Brisbane, with her husband and two beautiful children, three dogs, a small herd of cattle, a flock of cockatoos, and one horse. And yes, you only have to walk into her house to see her first love. Pictures of maidens on horseback grace the walls, and every corner and mantel is filled with knights and battle axes, the bookshelves overflowing with tales of chivalry.