Australian author (born 1976)
For the EastEnders character, see Kate Mitchell (EastEnders).
Kate Morton is an Australian author. She is known for her best-selling novels, including The House at Riverton, The Forgotten Garden, and The Distant Hours. Her seventh book, Homecoming, was published in April 2023.
Morton is the oldest of three sisters. Her family moved several times before settling on Tamborine Mountain where she attended a small country school. She enjoyed reading books from an early age, her favourites being those by Enid Blyton.[1]
She completed a Licentiate in Speech and in Drama from Trinity College London and then a summer Shakespeare course at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Later she earned first-class honours in English Literature at the University of Queensland (1999) and won a scholarship to complete a master's degree focussing on tragedy in Victorian literature.[2]
During her undergraduate studies she wrote two full-length manuscripts (which are unpublished) before writing The House at Riverton (The Shifting Fog), which was published in 2006.[citation needed]
Her first published novel, The House at Riverton, was listed on Richard and Judy's 2007 Summer Read list in the UK, and sold 63,128 copies in its first week. This made Morton the second biggest-selling author in the UK after JK Rowling.[3]
As of October 2015[update], Morton had sold more than 16 million books in 42 countries, making her one of Australia's "biggest publishing exports".[4]
Morton is married to Davin Patterson, a jazz musician and composer. They have three children and live in London.[5][11]