Shute writer publishes her first book
Katie Ward’s The Pretender gives a new twist to Mark Twain’s ‘The Prince and the Pauper’
Devon based author Katie Ward, who wrote previously for The Midweek Herald, has just released her debut novel.
Called ‘The Pretender’, the book was inspired by one of her favourite childhood stories while growing up in Shute, near Axminster.
Katie loved reading from an early age and it was on a trip to Scotland where she was given a copy of Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper by her great-aunt for the long journey home. Remaining one of her favourite stories to this day, Katie always wanted the ending to be different. This inspired her to write a modern day version and give it the ending she had always wanted it to have since she was a young child.
Katie told the Midweek Herald: “Classic fiction has always been a passion of mine and I felt sad that most young people had never heard of ‘The Prince and the Pauper’ as it is one of my all-time favourites. But realistically, it is too dated to really appeal to the mainstream market. So I decided to modernise it and bring it up to date so I can have the ending I’ve always wanted and I can bring the story to a whole new generation, too.”
Katie worked with local artist, Emma Haines, to produce the illustrations for the book which was published on Wednesday (September 12).
The Pretender is described as ‘an emotionally intense and compelling story of friendship, love and the strange power of destiny’ and is currently available from Waterstones (ISBN: 9781916430006) Amazon and via Kindle.
* While living in Dublin, Katie entered a competition on National Irish TV called ‘Do the Write Thing’. It was run via the Irish daytime show Seoige and O’Shea, affectionately dubbed ‘The Irish Richard and Judy’.
Katie was the only non-Irish entrant out of 14 chosen to be featured in an anthology of the same name that reached the Irish Bestsellers List.
Later that year, Katie also entered an extract of her first novel into a competition which was being run by Metro Eireann newspaper and judged by MAN Booker Prize winner Roddy Doyle, having her story shortlisted.
Visit the interview here: https://www.eastdevon24.co.uk/news/katie-ward-gives-famous-tale-a-new-ending-1-5691888
