Meet the author

Karen Inglis.

Writer · United Kingdom

Karen Inglis: self-publishing phenomenon behind the bestselling Secret Lake time-slip mysteries, gentle page-turning adventures for readers of eight to eleven.

Karen Inglis is a British children's author and one of the UK's self-publishing success stories, whose time-slip mystery The Secret Lake has sold over half a million print copies and been translated into more than a dozen languages after early rejection. Set in London, it follows siblings Stella and Tom, who chase a neighbour's vanishing dog through a hidden tunnel and out onto a secret lake a hundred years in the past. Its long-awaited sequels, Return to the Secret Lake and Beyond the Secret Lake, deepen the friendships-across-time and raise the stakes, the latter winning the 2025 UK Selfies Children's Book Award. Warm, brisk and old-fashioned in the best sense, Inglis's adventures are a reliable hook for eight-to-eleven-year-olds who like their thrills without the fright.