Kate Atkinson MBE (born 20 December 1951) is an English writer of novels, plays and short stories.

After leaving the university, she took on a variety of jobs, from home help to legal secretary and teacher, until her breakthrough as a writer in 1995.

[6] Atkinson was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2011 Birthday Honours for services to literature.

This is a story about two women who are both recovering from a suicide attempt in a hospital room next to the maternity ward.

Behind the Scenes at the Museum was awarded the Whitbread Prize in the categories of “best debut,” and “Book of the Year.” The latter led to some commotion in the media; the debut novel by the unknown Atkinson had been selected over the winner in the “best novel” category, The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie.

In her next two novels, Human Croquet (1997) and Emotionally Weird (2000), Atkinson experimented with different stylistic elements and narrative techniques.

[5] In 2004, Case Histories, a novel centered around the private investigator Jackson Brodie, was published; he was Atkinson's first male protagonist.

Over the course of the story, the main character Ursula Todd dies several times, only to be born again and again in the year 1910 and start her life anew.

[14] Big Sky, Atkinsons fifth novel centered about detective Jackson Brodie was published in 2019.

After a number of books about World War II, Atkinson wanted to write about a different theme.

The storyline of Big Sky was originally intended for a TV series about a female detective, to be played by Victoria Wood.

[5] Shrines of Gaiety (2022) is set in the London nightclub milieu shortly after World War II.

In 2024 Death at the Sign of the Rook was published, the sixth Jackson Brodie novel, conceived during the corona pandemic.

Problems experienced in the present are often caused by painful past events, that sometimes have been concealed for generations.

[3] In 2015 in the United States, Shonda Rhimes was in the process of developing a pilot called The Catch, based on a treatment written by Atkinson, and starring Mireille Enos.