Katharine Way

Born in 1963 in Swansea, South Wales. Dad was a university lecturer and mum a teacher, so I grew up in a house full of books.

Attended Olchfa comprehensive school and there, won a place to study English at Queens’ College Cambridge. Subsequently did an MA in Theatre Studies at Lancaster University. As at Cambridge I learnt an enourmous amount (not always from the official syllabus) and made some life long friends.

I started writing when I was 6 years old, had a short story published at 15 and never looked back. Through school and university I did enough acting to realise that I really can’t act and enough directing to understand that I am probably not a director, but trying both of those things taught me a huge amount about writing. So did working as a theatre critic, first at the Edinburgh Fringe and then for London Listings magazines.

Doing “proper jobs”, first for a disability charity and then for Amnesty International (an amazing place to work where we were once visited by the Dalai Lama) has also informed my writing. I have now been writing for over 30 years, mostly drama, always engaging with contempoary and current concerns and trying to generate empathy. I have won and been nominated for awards (see below) but am most proud of having pushed the envelope a few times, including writing British T.V dramas first ever gay wedding for Casualty!