Kate Harrison is the author of 20 fiction and non-fiction books, including The 5:2 Diet Book, The Secret Shopper's Revenge, and the Soul Beach trilogy for teenagers. She also writes thrillers as Kate Helm and books for writers. Her first is Pitch Power - Discover what makes your book irresistible and how to sell it.

Find out more and get in touch at www.the5-2dietbook.com and www.kate-harrison.com

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Kate was born in north-west England, and moved home more than a dozen times as a child. Despite writing many 'novels' at school (including a four-part thriller set in Paris), her careers officer told her she'd never make a living from stories, so instead she became a journalist at the BBC, working on news and current affairs programmes including Newsround and Panorama.

In 2003, she proved her careers teacher wrong, and published her first novel, Old School Ties. Since then, she's written more novels for adults (including The Secret Shopper series about undercover shopping, and The Boot Camp about extreme fitness!). Her thriller series for teenagers, Soul Beach, is creepier and more chilling, with a murder mystery and a frightening website to be explored (www.soulbeach.org). Her latest ebook novel is A Batch Made in Heaven, a story of love, London and baked goods...

In 2012, Kate set up a Facebook group with friends following a fasting diet, and later that year, she combined her own experiences and recipes, plus the group members' own tips, in The 5:2 Diet Book, which became a Kindle and print bestseller, and has now been published all over the world. Her Ultimate 5:2 Recipe Book contains delicious recipes and meal plans, plus stories from people whose lives have been transformed by intermittent fasting. In 2013, she published 5:2 Your Life, which explores how making tiny changes on just two days each week can make you happier as well as healthier! And in 2015, her latest recipe book, 5:2 Good Food Kitchen was published, with great meals for both fast and non-fasting days, plus Making Sense of... a guide to understanding diet research, myths and advice.

In 2016, she wrote 5:2 Veggie and Vegan: after three decades as a vegetarian, Kate knows her greens!

In 2016, she worked with fellow author and friend, Sarah Rayner, on Making Friends with Depression, a guide to recovery from the blues, based on personal experiences and research. Kate loves to cook, to read and to travel. She's lived in the Netherlands and Spain, before settling by the seaside in Brighton.

In 2019, The Secrets You Hide, her first thriller as Kate Helm, was published. In 2020, a new thriller, The House Share, will be published.