Kathleen Rowntree

Kathleen Rowntree is an English writer. She was born in Northumberland, brought up in Lincolnshire, studied music and English at Hull University and is now living with her husband in Oxfordshire. She taught for some years before she began to write. When asked what her novels are about she usually replies with one word: 'relationships'. Her explorations of human foibles, schemes and tangles lead reviewers to use words like sharp, shrewd, witty, satirical, clever and hard-biting - as well as sympathetic, funny, warm, suspenseful and (fortunately) entertaining. She has many other interests besides reading and writing fiction: especially art, poetry and hiking in the hills. Among the UK writers she herself gets most from are Elizabeth Taylor, Julian Barnes and William Trevor while Anne Tyler, Alison Lurie and Tom Wolfe are three of her US favorites.