Getting Rid of Karenna

What's it all about?

Bright and chirpy 15 year old Suzanne Fish is devastated when she finds the confident young woman working over her in her first Saturday job and the calculating, spiteful girl who bullied her in Year 7 and 8 are one and the same. Was it all going to start again?

'There is only one word to describe this book 'fabulous'. Are you sure this writer isn't a teenager because this is really how life is for us teens. The issues she brought up are a real problem in schools and I think she handled them perfectly. I really got into this book and I was just waiting to see if Suzanne got Karenna back. This is THE bullying book.' Christopher Taylor, 9OG Ecclesfield Comp, Sheffield.

Where did the idea come from?

The very first short story I wrote when I joined a creative writing class in 1986 was called 'The Bogs'. It was about a girl, Suzanne, who had arranged to meet her friend at break in the school 'bogs', a place Suzanne avoided whenever she could as she had been bullied there when she was younger. The friend was late and as she waited, all the memories came flooding back. I later made the story into a book called 'She was only the Upholsterer's Daughter' (yes, really!) and this eventually became 'Getting Rid of Karenna'.

Short-listed for the Sheffield Children's Book Award 2001 The Bookseller's Book of the Month

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