Catherine Taylor was born and grew up on the small island of Guernsey, one of the British Channel Islands in the English Channel.
My mother was a professional landscape artist, who spent her life painting the beautiful beaches and countryside of Guernsey. And so, I grew up in an environment where it was a very normal thing to want to make a living from your art. Which is just as well, because I’m someone who always knew she wanted to be a writer, and if I’d had parents who’d harboured hopes of me becoming a tax accountant or a corporate lawyer, they’d have been sorely disappointed.
I’ve been obsessed with words and books since the day I first learned to read and grew up on classic children’s authors like Enid Blyton and Edith Nesbit. As I got older, I began to gravitate towards love stories with gripping plots, devouring novels like Jane Eyre, Rebecca, Katharine, Wuthering Heights and Pride and Prejudice, about clever, independent-minded women caught up in passionate affairs with complex, Byronic men. And equally I loved sweeping epics like The Thorn Birds and Gone With The Wind. I have always been a hopeless romantic, and my favourite novels are beautiful, intelligent love stories that combine a gripping plot with gorgeous prose and wonderful historical detail to lose yourself in.
Published book:
Beyond the Moon – 2019
Oak Lawn Library Friends 