About

Hello. I’m M.A. Knights.

British comedic fantasy with warmth, humour, and the occasional politely alarming creature.

I’m an English writer, BookToker, and firm believer that magic is considerably more useful than data (though I did try the data first).

After earning degrees in Countryside Conservation and Climate Change, I came to a quiet but decisive conclusion: I am not, in fact, a scientist. Something to do with numbers. And memory. And an overwhelming preference for dragons.

So I returned to what made sense: peculiar worlds, improbable creatures, and stories in which the strange is treated as entirely reasonable.

These days I write funny British fantasy, from cosy paranormal mysteries to darker folklore, populated by eccentric investigators, opinionated folklore, and the sort of peril that is dramatic enough to be interesting, but polite enough not to ruin one’s afternoon.

My books tend to involve:

  • Found family assembled under slightly inconvenient circumstances
  • Magic that complicates matters more than it resolves them
  • Tea. Frequently.
  • Creatures who may or may not be entirely trustworthy
  • Saving the day in ways that are rarely tidy

I am particularly fond of stories where the absurd is delivered with a straight face, where folklore behaves like a disgruntled neighbour, and where courage often looks suspiciously like stubborn kindness.

If you enjoy mysteries solved with biscuits, whimsical dread (the civilised kind), and worlds that don’t always cooperate but eventually relent, you may feel at home here.

Should you encounter anything peculiar while reading, do not be alarmed.
It is almost certainly meant to be there.
M.A. Knights dressed as Wilfred Bumblethump: red pointed hat, long grey plaited beard and round glasses, consulting a clipboard behind a stack of books
Three Thursdays a month

And sometimes, I’m Wilfred

Wilfred Bumblethump is head librarian at the magical Dragonstone library, and he writes to my newsletter readers most Thursdays: the books he keeps, the customers he serves, his dragon boss, and whatever has gone wrong in the catalogue this week.

Any resemblance between us is entirely his fault.

Where to start

Pull up a chair

Trussel & Gout

Cosy paranormal comedy in Edwardian Britain. Seven books, and a free prequel to try first.

Castle Blackwood

A darker, folkloric series of its own. Still comedy at the core, sharper around the edges.

Weekly serials

Goodboy and Sidequest, a new chapter of each every week on Patreon.