About

Kate Gilby Smith was born on the island of Guernsey. It was while daydreaming during a philosophy of time travel seminar at the University of Edinburgh that she first had the idea for her debut book, The Astonishing Future of Alex Nobody, which was published by Hachette in June 2021. The book won the Awesome Book Awards 2023 and was chosen for the Book Trust’s 2023 BookBuzz programme.

Kate’s second book, Olive Jones and the Memory Thief, was published in June 2022. It was chosen by the Sunday Times as one of the Best Children’s Books for Summer, picked by Nicolette Jones who called the book ‘refreshing’. The book was also selected as one of the Best Children’s Books of 2022 by the Financial Times, chosen by James Lovegrove who called it ‘a rollicking espionage adventure… [that] should keep junior spy-thriller aficionados very happy’. Olive Jones and the Memory Thief has been shortlisted for the James Reckitt Hull Children’s Book Award 2023 and was featured on the Scottish Book Trust’s Scottish Friendly Book Tour 2022.

As a child Kate loved books that made her think about big philosophical questions, especially those related to the mysteries and possibilities of science. Now she aims to write books for children that do just that.

Kate lives in London where she works as a commissioning editor for adult commercial fiction. When not writing, her favourite things are dogs, swimming in the sea and eating ice cream.