Aisha Bushby was born in the Middle East and has lived in Kuwait, England and Canada. Her short story, Marionette Girl, was featured in the Stripes award-winning anthology, A Change is Gonna Come. She now lives by the sea and writes children’s books, sometimes with a little bit of magic in them. She loves cats, […]
Ally Sherrick* loves exploring ruined castles and decaying mansions and imagining what it must have been like to live in them without electricity and hot and cold running water – although she’s quite glad she doesn’t have to herself! She has a BA in medieval history and French from the University of Newcastle and an […]
Debut children’s author Annelise Gray was born in Bermuda and moved to the UK as a child. She grew up riding horses and dreaming of becoming a writer. After gaining a PhD in Classics from Cambridge, she worked as a researcher for authors and TV companies on topics as varied as Helen of Troy, Russian […]
Chris Vick* lives near Bath, with his wife and daughter. His new book, Girl. Boy. Sea. was published by Zephyr, August 2019 and tells the story of a girl and a boy shipwrecked in a storm off the coast of Morocco. ‘The sea seeped, poured, then stormed into my writing. The ocean is my subject- […]
Growing up, Dan Smith* led three lives. In one he survived the day-to-day humdrum of boarding school, while in another he travelled the world, finding adventure in the paddy fields of South East Asia and the jungles of Brazil. But the third life he lived in a world of his own, making up stories . […]
Darren Simpson* lives in Nottingham with his wife and two mischievous boys. After not quite making it as a drummer in a rock band, Darren turned to writing and discovered that it’s a fun way not only to escape reality, but also to explore and confront it in unusual ways. He can usually be found […]
Eloise Williams* was born in Cardiff and grew up in Llantrisant. She now lives in Saundersfoot, Pembrokeshire, very close to the beach where she walks her dog Watson Jones and collects sea glass with her artist husband, Guy Manning. She worked in the theatre in various odd jobs before going on to study Drama at […]
Ewa* Jozefkowicz: I’ve loved reading for as long as I can remember. When I was little, I felt very lucky that my dad was a bookseller. I remember spending many school holidays tucked up in the corner of a bookshop, slowly reading my way through the children’s section. I was allowed to read as many […]
James Nicol* has loved books and stories his whole life. He grew up near the North Norfolk coast, a place teeming with legends about witches! And as a child spent hours absorbed in novels, watching epic 1980s cartoons or adventuring in the wood at the bottom of the garden searching for dragons and witches! He […]
I have always loved reading and writing. Growing up, I kept a tower of books under my pillow for sneak-reading after lights out, and it became quite clear from a young age that putting words together in ways that made other people want to read them was basically the only thing I was any good […]
Kirsty* was born in Essex and grew up in Hampshire. She has had a wide variety of jobs including bookselling, railway re-signalling, picking stones off conveyor belts, putting lids on perfume bottles and teaching Pilates. She now lives with her husband on top of a hill in Winchester. Kirsty’s first book, The Middler, tells the story of […]
Lexi Rees* writes action packed adventures brim full of witch-doctors, fortune-tellers, warriors and smugglers, combining elemental magic with hints of dystopia. She also writes fun activity books for children. She’s passionate about developing a love of reading and writing in children and, as well as an active programme of school visits and other events, she […]
Lorraine Gregory* was raised on a council estate in East London by an Austrian mother and an Indian father. Her love of reading and wild imagination led to years of making up stories but none of them made it to the page until she began writing them down for her son. Her debut children’s novel, […]
Michelle Paver was born in central Africa but came to England as a child. After gaining a degree in Biochemistry at Oxford University, she was a partner at a City law firm, until she gave that up to write full time. She is the author of the bestselling, award-winning series that began with Wolf Brother. The series […]
Onjali Q. Raúf* is the award-winning author of her debut book, The Boy at the Back of the Class. Her second book is called The Star Outside My Window and delicately deals with the issue of domestic abuse. Her latest book, The Night Bus Hero, is eagerly anticipated and explores the theme of homelessness. She […]
P.G. Bell* is a native of south Wales, where he was raised on a diet of Greek mythology, ghost stories and Doctor Who. He’s had all sorts of jobs over the years, from lifeguard to roller coaster operator, but has always wanted to write stories. He lives in Wales with his wife Anna and their […]
Phil Earle* was born in Hull and his only ambition was to play football for Hull City. After working in a bookshop’s kid’s department, he discovered a passion for children’s literature.He’s now an award-winning novelist for children and young adults. Michael Wagg* is a playwright and actor, and as well as writing for theatre he has written for the […]
Robin Scott-Elliot has been a sports journalist for 25 years with the BBC, ITV, the Sunday Times, the Independent and the ‘i’, covering every sport you can think of and a few you probably can’t. His most memorable moment was covering the Paralympics for The Independent, which he called ‘a life-affirming experience’. He threw that […]
Born in Tasmania with Irish roots, Samuel J. Halpin* is 27 and writes daily. Having studied journalism at the University of New South Wales, Samuel went on to take cinematography at AFTRS, the national Australian film school in Sydney before moving to London and working in comedy TV production. The Peculiar Peggs of Riddling Woods […]
Sharon Cohen was born in Lancashire but spent most of her early childhood in West Yorkshire. After graduating with a first-class science degree and a doctorate, Sharon worked as a scientific writer. Her passion for children’s fiction emerged following the birth of her first son and she completed the Open University Children’s Literature course in 2011 […]
Shirley Marr is a first generation Chinese-Australian living in sunny Perth and an author of Young Adult and children’s fiction. Her titles are A Glasshouse of Stars, Little Jiang, Preloved and Fury. It was while she was working on a very dry Accounting PhD that she realised she’d rather be writing down her dark, twisted daydreams […]
Sinéad O’Hart lives in County Meath, near Dublin with her husband and their daughter. She has done many jobs in her life, including working as a butcher and a bookseller, but could never quite shake the small voice whispering ‘write ‘ in her ear. She has a degree in English and History, a PhD in […]
Sophie Anderson grew up with stories in her blood, from her mother, who is a writer, to her Prussian grandmother, whose own storytelling inspired The House with Chicken Legs. Born in Swansea but now living in the Lake District with her family, Sophie loves walking, canoeing and daydreaming. Her dream is to create stories that help […]
Stewart* Foster: I got into writing for children totally by accident. I’d been sulking after my first adult book didn’t do great, and came up for the idea of The Bubble Boy whilst walking around a supermarket with a friend. I’ve run London Marathon five times and ridden up the top fifteen mountains frequently used […]
Tom took a while to get into reading. He was more concerned with his hobby, football. But once he realised you could read about your hobby and it still counted as reading, his love of words took off. Tom was born in Leeds, has had three dads and his first job was as a milkman. […]
Vanessa Harbour* is a disabled writer and academic who loves words and believes in living life to the full regardless of what life throws at her. In particular, she likes to weave her words into stories for children and young adults providing moments of hope in a difficult world. When she was growing up, she […]
Vashti Hardy* is a writer of children’s books living near Brighton in Sussex with her husband and three teens. She was a primary school teacher for several years, and has a special interest in children’s writing, especially free-writing and the use of journals and creating fantasy worlds. She has a first-class honours teaching degree with […]
A lifelong storyteller and daydreamer, Victoria Williamson is a children’s author and teacher who has lived and worked in Africa, China, America and the UK. Victoria grew up just north of Glasgow, surrounded by hills on the edge of a forest estate where many of her early ghost stories and fantasy tales were born amid […]
Zillah Bethell was born in Papua New Guinea, spent her childhood barefoot playing in the jungle, and didn’t own a pair of shoes until she came to the UK when she was eight. She was educated at Oxford University and lives in Wales with her family.
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