I’ve just added another event to my spring tour! I’m going to be visiting the wonderful Max Minerva’s bookstore in Bristol on the 10th of May at 3:30pm. The last time I visited Max Minerva’s it was 2018 and they’d just opened, so it’s wonderful to be back again six years later! You can book your ticket now at their website – please note that you can bring along your own books if you want, or buy new books for me to sign! If you do bring your own books, the price is £1. I’m going to be in Bristol for CrimeFest that weekend – I’m also doing a school event on the morning of the 10th, so it’s goin ..read more

2024 is the tenth anniversary of Murder Most Unladylike – and I have a lot of celebrations planned! We’re putting together the final touches to the tour at the moment, and I’ll be able to reveal the full programme soon – but for now, I can announce the very first event on it, an appearance at Hay Festival 2024! I’ll be there on the 30th of May at 2:30pm, talking about The Body in the Blitz and Murder Most Unladylike, and you can book tickets now. I’ll also be signing books old and new afterwards – you’re welcome to bring along as many as you want and I’ll sign what I can! I hope I’ll see lots ..read more

I just got the very nice news that The Body in the Blitz, the second Ministry of Unladylike Activity book, has been shortlisted for the CrimeFest Best Crime Novel for Children Award 2024! It’s really exciting to be noticed by one of the biggest crime fiction conferences in the UK – I’m really proud, and so pleased to be on the list with so many books and authors I admire. The ceremony is in May, in Bristol, and I’m very excited about it – it’s great to have a whole weekend to celebrate crime fiction ..read more

If you’re in America and Canada, you’ll (hopefully) have noticed the gorgeous US editions of my books hitting shelves. We’ve now published the nine murder mystery novels in the Murder Most Unladylike series, and this year it’s the turn of my two companion books, Cream Buns and Crime and Once Upon a Crime. Cream Buns and Crime will publish on April 23 from Simon Kids, and ahead of that we’ve had the most wonderful review from Kirkus, the most trusted book review body in the US. Stevens’ nine-book series is a satisfying and highly successful combination of English boarding-school tales and trad ..read more

Ten years after Murder Most Unladylike first published in the UK, it’s amazing to see that it’s still arriving in new territories – and the latest addition is one I’m particularly pleased about, Spanish! El Crimen es Cosa de Damas has just published from Editorial Alma, translated by Andrea Montero Cusset. It’s out now, available in all good bookstores and online, and the sequel is on the way soon! I’m so thrilled to have Spanish readers introduced to my world and my detectives. It’s always so amazing to see my words travelling further and reaching more people than I ever could. It’s a special ..read more

My first event of 2024 has been announced: I’m coming to Oxford Central Library on the 9th of March for a free event in partnership with Daunt’s Summertown to celebrate World Book Day 2024. Tickets are limited as it’s a small space, so sign up now! And if you miss out, don’t worry. I’ll be back in May and June for a full programme of events to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Murder Most Unladylike, as well as the launch of our new crime fiction anthology, The Super Sunny Murder Club ..read more

I’m delighted to be bringing you my first announcement (and first post!) of 2024: the team that created 2021’s The Very Merry Murder Club is back with a brand new mystery anthology! My partner in crime Serena Patel and I are proud to present thirteen new and extremely puzzling short stories by thirteen of our favourite middle-grade authors: Abiola Bello, Annabelle Sami, Benjamin Dean, E.L. Norry, Elle McNicoll, Dominique Valente, Maisie Chan, Nizrana Farook, Patrice Lawrence, Roopa Farooki, Serena Patel, Sharna Jackson – and me! I’m really excited to be able to contribute a short story this ti ..read more

It’s the 23rd of December – which means that it’s officially Mistletoe and Murder season! I always make a post on this day each year to remind you all that if you want to start your festive read, or reread, today is the perfect time to do it. I’m now away for the holidays for the rest of the year, so this is the last post you’ll get from me in 2023. But I will be back in January, with a lot of exciting things – several really fun announcements to share with you, plans for the 10th anniversary of Murder Most Unladylike, and news about my 2024 tour dates. I hope you have a restful and peaceful h ..read more

It’s true – my tour for The Body in the Blitz is done! Thank you to everyone who came along and made it so special. I had a wonderful time and I hope you did too! I’m now resting from events until 2024 – I have to start planning Ministry 3, and then I’ll be mostly working on writing it in the spring of 2024. But in late spring/summer of 2024 I’ll be back out on the road for the 10th anniversary of Murder Most Unladylike! Please be patient until my tour dates are announced – I always try to get to as many parts of the UK and Ireland as possible, but of course I can’t always visit your town or c ..read more

I was interviewed in Hello! Magazine last week! I spoke to Matthew Moore about the importance of bookshops, why queer representation is so important in children’s books and about why I decided to write the Ministry of Unladylike Activity series after the end of the Murder Most Unladylike books. “It’s important to educate adults on what the stakes are here, it’s important to keep pointing out what it means to be queer, why queer role models need to be visible, and we need to be telling stories about queer people, because that is how we change minds. We need to have the courage of our convictio ..read more