After KATE MAYFIELD was born she was taken directly to a funeral home. Her father, an undertaker, set up shop in a small town in southern Kentucky where the family resided in his funeral home for thirteen years. This is the setting of her third book, a memoir, The Undertaker's Daughter. She is the co-author of Ten Steps To Fashion Freedom and Ellie Hart Goes To Work. After living in New York and Los Angeles, she now makes London her home. www.katemayfield.com Twitter: @KateMayfield Facebook: Kate Mayfield Author
`The Parentations is beautiful, innovative and atmospheric. I was completely captivated.' * Anna Mazzola, author of <i>The Unseeing</i> * `Epic. Gothic. Magic. Somebody better snap up the film rights.' * Jane Harris, author of <i>The Observations</i> and <i>Sugar Money</i> * `Reminiscent of both Carr's Alienist and Norfolk's John Saturnall's Feast, this debut novel is utterly compelling - acute plotting, vivid characters and writing so accomplished that Mayfield has you by the throat from the very start.' * Kate Colquhoun, author of <i>Mr Briggs' Hat</i> * 'Mayfield's delightfully rich and uncanny novel, The Parentations, manages to be pacy and addictive, while simultaneously asking profound questions about life and death. Quite unlike anything I've ever read before.' * Ben Fergusson, author of <i>The Spring of Kasper Meier</i> * 'The Parentations is a story told on an epic scale, taking the reader from the wilds of 18th century Iceland to present day Camden Town, and which is as much about the nature of love as it is about the nature of evil. Kate Mayfield weaves her uncanny tale with rich historical detail, creating an atmospheric read which is vivid and compelling.' * Sophia Tobin, author of <i>The Silversmith's Wife</i>, <i>The Widow's Confession</i>, and <i>The Vanishing</i> * 'So inventive and unexpected and original.' * Sally Magnusson, broadcaster, presenter, and author of <i>Where Memories Go</i> and <i>The Sealwoman's Gift</i> * `An ambitious, wildly imaginative masterpiece.' * Isobel Costello, author of the bestselling <i>Paris Mon Amour</i> * `A hugely impressive novel - I loved it.' * William Ryan, author of <i>The Holy Thief</i> * `The Parentations has all the twists, richness and atmosphere of a dark Dickensian epic but with a tale that casts its net over two centuries. It's rare for a debut novel to have this much ambition and flair but what Kate Mayfield promises in The Parentations she delivers in spades.' * Jason Hewitt, author of <i>The Dynamite Room</i> and <i>Devastation Road</i> * `The Parentations turns the epic on its head...The research is gripping and the ambition breathtaking, and the journey this story takes you on is quite unlike any other I've experienced.' * Lloyd Shepherd, author of <i>The English Monster</i> * `A blend of speculative fiction, historical fiction and fantasy, The Parentations is full of richly drawn characters...making for an excellent read and an author whose work I'll be extremely keen to see more of in the future.' * <i>Bookbag</i> * `A strange and marvellous tale of death and long, long life from a startling imagination. A joy to read.' * Michael Ridpath, author of the bestselling <i>Fire & Ice</i> series * 'Mayfield's prose glitters like icy stalactites illuminating the lesser-explored comers of the human (and inhuman) condition. Perfectly and sweetly chilling.' * Syd Moore, author of <i>Strange Magic</i> *