Karen Restaino

Karen Restaino began her writing career as a playwright with her debut stage play, a Victorian period drama, A Guinea Too Much, being successfully performed at the Mansfield Palace Theatre in 2003 and her TV drama, Age Concerned, shortlisted for Channel 4’s The Plays The Thing in 2006. The mother of four returned to education shortly after studying for a BA in Theatre Studies at the Rose Bruford College in Sidcup, South London, then went on to attain a PGCE in her home town of Sheffield at Hallam University.

Since then, Karen, now 54, and a grandmother with five grandchildren, had a burning desire to return to writing. The Ringmaster is her first novel, which incorporates her fascination with the art of Theatre with a love of storytelling.