Robin Stevens (author)
{{Short description|American-born English author}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2015}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2015}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Robin Stevens
| image =
| image_size =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1988|01|15|df=yes}}
| birth_place = California, United States
| occupation = Novelist
| language = English
| genre = Children's fiction
| notableworks = Murder Most Unladylike series
| awards =
| website = {{URL|robin-stevens.co.uk}}
}}
Robin Stevens (born 15 January 1988) is an American-born English author of children's fiction, best known for her Murder Most Unladylike series. She has spoken of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction as an influence on her work.
Early life
Stevens was born in California and moved to Oxford, England at the age of three. She has dual US and UK citizenship.{{cite web |title=Robin Stevens|url=https://robin-stevens.co.uk/about-me/ |website=Robin Stevens Official Website |date=13 February 2014 |accessdate=16 January 2018|ref=rob}} She attended The Dragon School{{cite web |last1=Stevens |first1=Robin |title=Murder Most Unladylike wins an Oxfordshire Book Award! |url=https://robin-stevens.co.uk/murder-most-unladylike-wins-an-oxfordshire-book-award/ |website=Robin Stevens Official Website |date=24 March 2015 |accessdate=16 January 2018 |ref=rob3}} and Cheltenham Ladies College. Her father, Robert Stevens, was Master of Pembroke College, Oxford,{{cite book |last1=Stevens |first1=Robin |title=Mistletoe and Murder |date=2016 |publisher=Penguin |location=London |isbn=9780141369723 |page=351 |ref=mist}} and her mother worked at Oxford University's Ashmolean Museum.{{cite web |last1=Stevens |first1=Robin |title=I Wish I'd Written: Robin Stevens |url=http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/issue/218/childrens-books/articles/i-wish-i%E2%80%99d-written/i-wish-i%E2%80%99d-written-robin-stevens|website=Books for Keeps |accessdate=16 January 2018 |ref=bfk}} Her grandfather was the literary critic Wayne C. Booth.{{cite web |last1=Stevens |first1=Robin |title=Tweet, 16 Jan 2018 |url=https://twitter.com/redbreastedbird/status/953332538759680000|website=Twitter |accessdate=17 January 2018 |ref=tweet}}
Stevens studied English at the University of Warwick, later gaining an MA in crime fiction from King's College London. She appeared as Captain of the Warwick University team on University Challenge.
Career
Before becoming a full-time author, Stevens worked as a bookseller at Blackwell's bookshop in Oxford,{{cite web |last1=Caldwell |first1=Anne |title=An Indies Introduce Q&A With Robin Stevens |url=http://www.bookweb.org/news/indies-introduce-qa-robin-stevens |website=BookWeb |date=6 May 2015 |publisher=American Booksellers Association |accessdate=16 January 2018 |ref=aba}} and as an editor at Egmont.{{cite web |last1=Stevens |first1=Robin |title=The End of an Era – All Change for 2016! |url=https://robin-stevens.co.uk/the-end-of-an-era-all-change-for-2016/ |website=Robin Stevens Official Website |date=13 November 2015 |accessdate=16 January 2018 |ref=rob2}}
Stevens started writing Murder Most Unladylike as part of National Novel Writing Month in November 2010, but did not send it to agencies for two years.{{cite web |last1=Eyre |first1=Charlotte |title='There's something so compelling about murder' |url=https://www.thebookseller.com/profile/robin-stevens-theres-something-so-compelling-about-murder-407391 |website=The Bookseller |accessdate=16 January 2018|ref=bks}}
Stevens has cited the Golden Age of Detective Fiction as an influence on her work – particularly the authors Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and Dorothy L. Sayers.{{cite book |last1=Stevens |first1=Robin |title=Cream Buns and Crime |date=2017 |publisher=Penguin |location=London |isbn=9780141376561|pages=79–85 |ref=crm}}
In November 2020 she announced that she was to have a new book out in August 2021, called Once Upon a Crime.{{Cite web|title=November 2020 - Once Upon a Crime Announcement! - YouTube|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txtWr39WX6o&t=1s|access-date=2021-01-06|website=www.youtube.com| date=13 November 2020 }} She also announced that there would be a new book (the first of a new series), coming out in 2022. The Ministry of Unladylike Activity will star Hazel Wong's (read below) little sister and two other characters, Eric and Nuala. This new series is set during World War II.
''Murder Most Unladylike''
Stevens's eleven book series Murder Most Unladylike consists of schoolgirl detectives, Hazel Wong and Daisy Wells, as they solve murders, as well as personal things. Hazel falls in love with American boy Alexander Arcady.
The series is set in the 1930s, sparking the Golden Age references. It also focuses on period-typical racism.
Awards
Works
=Series=
- The Murder Most Unladylike Series
- Murder Most Unladylike (2014)
- Arsenic For Tea (2014)
- First Class Murder (2015)
- Jolly Foul Play (2016)
- Mistletoe and Murder (2016)
- Cream Buns and Crime: Tips, tricks and tales from the Detective Society (2017)
- A Spoonful of Murder (2018)
- Death in the Spotlight (2018)
- Top Marks for Murder (2019)
- The Case of the Drowned Pearl (2020)
- Death Sets Sail (2020)
- Once Upon a Crime (2021)
- The Ministry of Unladylike Activity Series
- The Ministry of Unladylike Activity (2022)
- The Body in the Blitz (2023)
=Standalone=
- The Guggenheim Mystery (2017), a sequel to The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd
=Contributor=
- Mystery and Mayhem: Twelve Deliciously Intriguing Mysteries (2016)
- Return to Wonderland: Stories Inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice (2019)
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://robin-stevens.co.uk/ Official website]
- [https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/126523/robin-stevens.html Author profile - Penguin Books]
- [https://twitter.com/redbreastedbird Official Twitter]
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Category:English children's writers
Category:Alumni of the University of Warwick
Category:People educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College
Category:People educated at The Dragon School
Category:Alumni of King's College London