T.C. Shelley studied Creative Writing and Literature at university. She has been teaching English for over twenty years and her first school was classified as the most remote in Australia. She loves an audience and long before she took up teaching was writing and performing her poetry and short stories. She began writing novels to entertain her daughter, who wisely suggested that she try to get them published. Shelley lives with her husband, her daughter and two dogs in Perth, Western Australia. The Monster Who Wasn't is her first novel.

A brilliantly rich and strange fantasy adventure that will make us all believe in monsters - be they good, bad or somewhere in between.

It is a well-known fact that fairies are born from a baby's first laugh. What is not as well documented is how monsters come into being .

This is the story of a creature who is both strange and unique. When he hatches down in the vast underground lair where monsters dwell, he looks just like a human boy - much to the disgust of everyone watching. Even the grumpy gargoyles who adopt him and nickname him 'Imp' only want him to steal chocolate for them from the nearby shops. He's a child with feet in both worlds, and he doesn't know where he fits.

But little does Imp realise that Thunderguts, king of the ogres, has a great and dangerous destiny in mind for him, and he'll stop at nothing to see it come to pass .

Shelley is a first-time novelist who writes with the confidence of an old hand. The plot never flags, but characters have time to develop, and even Shelley's most outlandish creations are rendered believable by her descriptive precision . A treat.

This story is quite simply beautifully written and will make us all believe in monsters of all shapes and sizes

There are plenty of shocks and frightening moments in store ... in this engrossing story