Catherine Jinks Profile

In "The Sydney Morning Herald", Clara Iaccarino profiles Catherine Jinks, the Brisbane-born, Blue Mountains-based author who has just published her 30th book, The Secret Familiar. "Much to her (and her agent's) chagrin, the only defining characteristic of Jinks's work is her name. Her chops and changes between genres have seen her fall between the cracks of popular and literary fiction and she has failed to corner one particular market. Medieval history is her comfort genre ('it's like coming home after travelling') but her tendency to become easily bored means she won't write two medieval thrillers back to back. She's well-known in 'teacher-librarian circles', but Jinks believes her failure to be pigeonholed as a writer of one genre is her downfall in terms of more widespread notoriety."