Julia Golding

Born in 1969, Julia Golding grew up on the edge of Epping Forest. She spent her childhood inventing stories about the mysterious trees she could see from her bedroom window. After reading English at Cambridge, she joined the Foreign Office and served in Poland. Her work took her from the high point of town twinning in the Tatra Mountains to the low of inspecting the bottom of a Silesian coal mine.

On leaving Poland, she exchanged diplomacy for academia and took a doctorate in the literature of the English Romantic Period at Oxford. She then joined Oxfam as a lobbyist on conflict issues, campaigning to lessen the impact on civilians living in war zones.

Julia now works freelance and writes. Her fabulous Georgian adventure, THE DIAMOND OF DRURY LANE, was published by Egmont at the beginning of 2006 and won the Ottakars Children's Book Prize and the 7-9 category of the Nestle Children's Book Award, as well as being nominated for the Costa (formerly the Whitbread) Award. The sequel, CAT AMONGST THE PIGEONS, was published in August 2006, followed by the third and fourth instalments, DEN OF THIEVES and CAT O'NINE TAILS in 2007. The fifth in the series, BLACK HEART OF JAMAICA, was published in early 2008 and will be followed by CAT'S CRADLE in 2009.

Also published by Egmont is RINGMASTER, the first installment in Julia's spy girl series featuring gutsy and clever Darcie Lock. The sequel, EMPTY QUARTER, will be published in Summer 2008 and two further titles are planned in the series.

OUP published Julia's Companions Quartet (THE SECRET OF THE SIRENS, THE GORGON'S GAZE, THE MINES OF THE MINOTAUR and THE CHIMERA'S CURSE) in 2006 and 2007 and the series is now published in the US by Marshall Cavendish. Also published in 2007 by OUP was a stand-alone fantasy novel for the 8-12s entitled THE SHIP BETWEEN THE WORLDS and in May 2008 a fantasy novel for readers aged 10+, DRAGONFLY.

In 2007, to mark the company's 25th birthday, Waterstone's named Julia Golding as one of 25 superstar writers who will be read widely and of great importance for the next 25 years.

Married with three children, Julia lives in Oxford.

Expats, espionage and exotic destinations.

"Empty Quarter" is gripping - you won't be able to put it down.Darcie's stuck aboard a cruise ship for problem rich kids. It sounds exotic but it's more like boot camp. And, annoyingly the US President's daughter with her reputation for being out-of-control is there too.Things are about to get interesting though...Darcie becomes embroiled in a kidnapping plot that will take her from Naples, via Cyprus, to Egypt and on a terrifying journey through the desert empty quarter.It is an adventure-thriller starring Darcie Lock.