Catherine Sampson or Cate Sampson is a British writer of crime/thriller fiction. Her first four novels were published by Pan Macmillan, using the name Catherine Sampson. Pan Macmillan website. Retrieved 9 February 2025] Her most recent books have been published using the name Cate Sampson. She is a teacher in London . Now Teach, UK educational charity. Retrieved 9 February 2025 who has also worked as a foreign correspondent for The Times and other publications.
Biography
Sampson was born in 1962Catherine Sampson Fantastic Fiction website. Retrieved 30 January 2011 in Swindon, England.author profile . Shanghai International Literary Festival, March 2008. Retrieved 30 January 2011 She studied Chinese at Leeds University where she graduated with a BA in 1984.In for the kill" . Time Out Hong Kong, Dec 2008. Retrieved 30 January 2011 She then studied at Harvard University as a Kennedy Scholar.Profile on Battle of Ideas website, UK. Retrieved 30 January 2011 After working for the BBC in London she was assigned by The Times to Beijing in 1988.Catherine Sampson. The Guardian, UK. Retrieved 29 January 2011 As the newspaper's China correspondent, Sampson covered the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. The Times, 3 June 1989. Reprinted 3 June 2009. Retrieved 30 January 2011 (subscription) She also worked as a freelance journalist during the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997"Perfectly Suited Where To Get Your Clothes Tailor-Made In Hong Kong". Fortune, Feb 1997. Retrieved 30 January 2011 before beginning her literary career in London. In 2001 she moved back to Beijing, remaining there until 2014 when she returned to London.Profile Beijing Bookworm. Retrieved 29 January 2011. Cate Sampson blog. Retrieved 9 February 2025 Sampson's first novel, Falling Off Air, was published in 2004. She is married to James Miles, a senior writer on Chinese affairs at The Economist.Biography . Beijing Literary Festival, 2009. Retrieved 30 January 2011
Work
The heroine of Sampson's early books was Robin Ballantyne, a British TV journalist working for "the Corporation" (possibly a veiled reference to the BBC,"The Pool of Unease by Catherine Sampson" . Tangled Books, Sept 2007. Retrieved 30 January 2011 for which Sampson herself had once worked, and which was also her husband's employer during the 1980s and 90s"The Lost Voices of Tiananmen". BBC World Service, May 2009. Retrieved 30 January 2011). In Falling Off Air (2004),Fantastic Fiction website. Retrieved 30 Jan 2011 Ballantyne witnesses the death of a celebrity neighbour and gradually discovers how it mysteriously relates to her own professional and private world."Falling Off Air". Fantastic Fiction. Retrieved 30 January 2011 In Out of Mind (2005), Ballantyne goes in search of a missing camerawoman, and becomes embroiled in "Corporation" intrigues. Ballantyne is less central to the action in Sampson's third novel, The Pool of Unease (2007), in which she shares the main role with Song Ren, a private detective.China Culture Center website, Beijing. Retrieved 30 Jan 2011"Media Talk: Has western coverage of the China story become stale and cliched?" . Carrie Gracie with Catherine Sampson at Frontline Club, London. August 2007. Retrieved 30 January 2011 Both are trying to unravel the murder of a British man in Beijing. In the fourth novel, The Slaughter Pavilion (2008), Ballantyne is mentioned only briefly and Song becomes the protagonist.Reviewing the Evidence website. Retrieved 30 Jan 2011 His investigations explore the gritty and lawless world of rural China.Matthew Lewin (20 September 2008) "The Slaughter Pavilion". The Guardian, retrieved 30 January 2011
Bibliography
Falling Off Air (2004) Out of Mind (2005) The Pool of Unease (2007) The Slaughter Pavilion (2008) Takeaway (short story, 2013) Carnaby (2013) Splintered Light (2014)
Other fiction
Hit and Run in Beijing: Portrait of a City (2008) Odyssey Books website. Retrieved 29 Jan 2011
Notes
External links Catherine Sampson website Catherine Sampson on writing fiction, Urbanatomy.com. October 2009 Chinese government website attacks Catherine Sampson article, December 2008 Catherine Sampson interviews author Qiu Xiaolong, March 2008. Catherine Sampson in conversation with Charlie Higson, James Twining, Joseph Finder and Simon Brett Catherine Sampson interviewed by fellow author Lijia Zhang on Blue Ocean Network, July 2010