KATE ATKINSON is one of the world's foremost novelists whose most recent novel was the critically acclaimed Shrines of Gaiety, set in the aftermath of the First World War. She won the Whitbread Book of the Year prize with her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum. Her three critically lauded and prize- winning novels set around the Second World War are Life After Life, a worldwide bestseller, A God in Ruins (both winners of the Costa Novel Award) and Transcription. Her bestselling literary crime novels featuring former detective Jackson Brodie became a BBC television series starring Jason Isaacs. Kate Atkinson was awarded an MBE in 2011 and is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature.