Kate Saunders

Kate Saunders (born 4 May 1960 in London) was an English writer, actress and journalist. She won the Betty Trask Award and the Costa Children's Book Award and was twice shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. She was a regular contributor to radio and television, with appearances on the Radio 4 programmes Woman's Hour, Start the Week and Kaleidoscope. She was, with Sandi Toksvig, a guest on the first episode of the long-running news quiz programme Have I Got News for You. The BBC children's series Belfry Witches was based on her series of children's books about two mischief-making witches. Saunders won the annual Costa Children's Book Award for 'Five Children on the Western Front' (2014), a contribution to the classic fantasy series that E. Nesbit inaugurated in 1902 with 'Five Children and It'. She was a contributor to the authorised Winnie-the-Pooh sequel, 'The Best Bear in All the World'. Her children's novel, 'The Land of Neverendings', was shortlisted for the 2019 Carnegie Medal, as was Five Children on the Western Front in 2106. She wrote such novels as 'Wild Young Bohemians', and co-authored 'Catholics and Sex' (1992) with Peter Stanford, who was then editor of the Catholic Herald. Saunders and Stanford later presented a television series based on the book on Channel 4.