Julie Bertagna

Julie Bertagna was born in Ayrshire and brought up near Glasgow. After an English degree at Glasgow University she worked as the editor of a small magazine, a teacher and then as a freelance feature writer for various publications. She was awarded a Scottish Arts Council Writer's Bursary - the second highest ever given to a children's writer in Scotland - after the publication of her first novel, THE SPARK GAP, which was shortlisted for the Angus Award.

Her second young adult novel, SOUNDTRACK, won the Scottish Arts Council's Children's Book Award, was shortlisted for the South Lanarkshire Book Award and selected for the Library Association's Scottish Writers Project in secondary schools. DOLPHIN BOY was shortlisted for the NASEN Award and the Blue Peter Book Awards.

EXODUS, Julie's third young adult novel, was longlisted for The Guardian Children's Book Award and shortlisted for the Whitbread Children's Book Award. It also won the Lancashire Children's Book of the Year Award 2003. Julie was awarded a second SAC Writer's Bursary and her fourth young adult novel, THE OPPOSITE OF CHOCOLATE was published in 2003 and shortlisted for the Booktrust Teenage Fiction Prize. A book for younger children, THE ICE CREAM MACHINE, was adapted for television.

Julie's sequel to EXODUS, ZENITH, has recently been published and the third part of the trilogy, AURORA, is forthcoming.

Julie now writes full-time and lives in Glasgow with her husband and daughter.

ZENITH is the incredible story of three teenages with the will to make their own new beginnings in the harshest of worlds. It continues the stunning journey begun in the Whitbread-shortlisted EXODUS.

The old world drowned as the waters rose - but the sky city of New Mungo was no refuge for Mara and her islanders. Now Mara is at sea again with a ship full of refugees.

Night after night, Mara stands at the bow of her stolen ship, tracking the North Star. She is determined to believe what is written in her precious book: that there is land still at the top of the world. But a floating city wasn't in her navigation plans...

Gypsea-boy Tuck has only ever lived by his wits in the barges and boats of Pomperoy. Then a great white ship brings catastrophe in its wake, and his city sails north in vengeance.

In the ruins beneath the towers of New Mungo, Fox has become a traitor to his world. With Mara beside him, he could challenge the cruel and corrupt ruling forces. But now she is an ocean away, and he must plot a lonely revolution...