Amanda Craig is the author of seven novels, including A Vicious Circle, Hearts and Minds (Long-listed for the Women's Prize) and The Lie of the Land (Radio 4 Book At Bedtime). Although each novel can be read on its own, they are part of an inter-related series about contemporary life in which minor characters become major ones, and vice versa. Often satirical, romantic and concerned with crime, she has been called a "State of the nation" novelist, and most often compared to Dickens, Trollope, Kate Atkinson and Evelyn Waugh. Her eight novel, The Golden Rule, is published in June 202 by Little,Brown and about two women, one rich and one poor, who meet on the London to Penzance train and agree to murder each other's husbands....

Also a critic and journalist she writes for many publications including the Guardian, the New Statesman, the Telegraph and the Spectator. She was the children's books critic for the Times for over a decade, and one of the first to review Philip Pullman, JKRowling, Cressida Cowell and Malorie Blackman among others.

She has said that she sees her job as a novelist is to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.

Website: amandacraig.com

Twitter: @AmandaPCraig

Words Away salon: Parallel Worlds: writing recurring characters and serial fiction