Katie Allen is reading ...

Welcome to my page on Bookshop.org - where you can buy books online and support local book shops, smaller publishers and authors.

Everything Happens for a Reason, my first novel, comes out in June 2021 with Orenda Books. There's a link to pre-order it below, but before that are some of the books I have loved, books I read while writing mine and brilliant books released by my indie publisher, Orenda. 

A little about me: 

I used to be a journalist and columnist at the Guardian and Observer, and I started my career as a Reuters correspondent in Berlin and London.
 

The events in Everything Happens for a Reason are fiction, but the premise is loosely autobiographical. Our son, Finn, was stillborn in 2010, and Rachel’s experience of grief and being on maternity leave without a baby is based on mine. And yes, someone did say to me “Everything happens for a reason”.

I grew up in Warwickshire and now live in South London with my husband, children, dog, cat, stick insects and visiting frogs.

I love books by A M Homes, Michael Frayn, Siri Hustvedt, Sarah Winman, Maria Semple and George Orwell and I also love debuts and most things with a strong voice and flawed but loveable characters. I don’t think I will ever get tired of re-watching The West Wing, The Blues Brothers or Back to the Future.