MacPhail's first try at a children's novel was entitled "Run, Zan, Run", and she says that she has "never enjoyed writing anything so much." It was inspired by her youngest daughter, Katie was being bullied at school and she wanted to raise the awareness of how little help is actually available to children who are being bullied. Run, Zan, Run was the winner of the 1994 Kathleen Fidler Award for new Scottish Writing and was positively received by critics.Catherine’s next book was entitled Fighting Back, and was equally uncompromising, but this time it was about loan-sharking. Fighting Back won one of the first Scottish Arts Council Children’s Book Awards in 1999 and was well-received, to a wide-audience.Catherine’s novel following it, was entitled Fugitive, has also received widespread acclaim.She has also written a series of four books entitled Nemesis, which concluded in May 2008. Catherine bases some of her books on real life experiences.

Novels Catherine MacPhailRun, Zan, Run (1994)Fighting Back (1998)Fugitive (1999)Missing (2000)A Kind of Magic (2001)Bad Company (2001)Dark Waters (2003)Picking on Percy(2003)Wheels (2003)Another Me(2003)Get That Ghost to Go! (2003)Catch Us If You Can (2004)Tribes (2004)Underworld (2004)Sticks and Stones (2005)Roxy's Baby (2005)Traitors' Gate (2005)Get That Ghost to Go Too (2006)Dead Man's Close (2006)Under the Skin (2007)Worse Than Boys(2007)Hide and Seek (2009)Grass (TBA)Out of the Depths (TBA)Green Green Grass (TBA)]

"Yet, my own background, my home town, have been the inspiration for most of my writing. A comedy series called ‘My Mammy and Me’, another one called ‘We Gotta Get Outta This Place.’ Set in Greenock, inspired by my own experiences. And my first book, the book that changed my life, Run Zan Run, based on what happened to my own daughter Katie, in Greenock. A tip, if you want to be a writer, don’t ever think nothing ever happens to you, because your own life is so interesting, if you just think about it.My only regret? I wish I had started sooner. But once I’d started? There was no stopping me."