Coral Atkinson was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1947. She has worked as a secondary school teacher, an educational journalist and in book publishing. She is a tutor on the Whitireia Polytechnic Diploma in Publishing course and the Canterbury branch representative on the NZSA National Council.Coral has had fiction published in New Zealand, Ireland and England and won and been short-listed for a number of short story competitions. In 2005 her first historical novel, The Love Apple, appeared and was followed in 2006 by The Paua Tower; both published by Random House New Zealand Limited. Her picture book on New Zealand history, Magic Eyes; I Spy New Zealand History, was published by Reed in 2006. Copper Top a junior historical novel followed in 2009. Coral has also written adult non-fiction. She co-authored (with Paula Wagemaker) Recycled People: Forming New Relationships in Mid-Life, Shoal Bay Press, 2000, and has published various non-fiction articles, essays and educational texts. Her most recent book is a historical novel, Passing Through.

---