After studying English at university Kate’s first job was as an assistant to a London antiques dealer. She then trained to be a journalist and worked in local newspapers and magazines before moving into PR where she worked for a range of charities and not for profit organisations including The National Autistic Society and British Waterways.

Until recently she was communications manager for Britain’s most venerable heritage body, The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, fondly known as SPAB.

Her most recent book is Fyneshade was published in hardback 2023 by Viper. (Paperback out February 2024). A loving homage to the gothic (and in particular the sub-genre, ‘Governess Gothic’), it is a bridge between Jane Eyre and the Turn of the Screw.

Kate is currently working on two books with co-writer Marcia Hutchinson. The Blackbirds of St Giles is set in the little-known world of the black community in Georgian London and will be published early in 2025 by Simon and Schuster.

Her first book, Kitty Peck and the Music Hall Murders (winner of the 2012 Faber and Faber / Stylist Magazine crime fiction writing competition) was published in July 2013. The sequel, Kitty Peck and the Child of Ill Fortune, was published in July 2015, Kitty Peck and the Daughter of Sorrow, was published July 2017 and the concluding instalment, Kitty Peck and the Parliament of Shadows was published in 2019.

Under the name Cate Cain, she has also published two historical mystery books for children, The Jade Boy and The Moon Child (both published by Templar).

Kitty Peck and the Music Hall Murders was shortlisted for the CWA Endeavour Historical Dagger in 2014. The Jade Boy was shortlisted for The Booktrust’s ‘Book of the Year’ award for readers aged 9-13.

Kate lives in St Albans.