Jo Clarke

Jo is an award-winning book blogger and primary school librarian. Her blog, BookloverJo enables her to indulge her love of reading children's books and she is particularly drawn to illustrated fiction. In her role as school librarian she runs regular book groups and creative writing classes. She is actively involved in the children's book community and has been involved in judging both the British Book Awards and Blue Peter Book Awards.

Growing up she liked nothing better than reading mystery and boarding school stories by torchlight, when she should have been fast asleep. Her love of these books has inspired her to write her first lower middle grade novel, Libby and the Parisian Puzzle which will be published by Firefly Press in April 2022

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Emily Critchley

Author of The Undoing of Violet Claybourne, One Puzzling Afternoon, Notes on My Family, The Bear Who Sailed the Ocean on an Iceberg and The Tiny Gestures of Small flowers.
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Sylvia Bishop

Sylvia Bishop spent an entire childhood reading fiction, dreaming up stories and pretending. She then tried very hard to get to grips with the real world by studying politics and going in to social science research. This was a shock. Thankfully, she discovered improvised comedy at university, which allowed her to carry on making up stories for at least 30% of her waking hours.

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Joyce Lankester Brisley

Joyce Lankester Brisley (6 February 1896 – 1978) was an English writer. She is most noted for writing and illustrating the Milly-Molly-Mandy series, which were first printed in 1925 by the Christian Science Monitor.

The second of three daughters of George Brisley, a pharmacist, of Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, Brisley's sisters - Ethel Constance, the eldest, and Nina Kennard, the youngest - were also illustrators. They studied art firstly at Hastings School of Art, then, following their parents' divorce in 1912 and the subsequent relocation of the girls and their father to Brixton, at Lambeth School of Art.

All three sisters illustrated postcards for the publisher Alfred Vivian Mansell & Co., with Nina (who also illustrated Elinor Brent-Dyer's Cha
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Terry Deary

A former actor, theatre-director and drama teacher, Deary says he began writing when he was 29. Most famously, he is one of the authors of the Horrible Histories series of books popular among children for their disgusting details, gory information and humorous pictures and among adults for getting children interested in history. Books in the series have been widely translated into other languages and imitated.

A cartoon series has been made of the series of books and was shown on CiTV for a period in 2002.

The first series of a live-action comedy sketch show of the same name was shown on CBBC in 2009 and a second series is due.

Terry is also known widely throughout children and adult reading groups alike for his True Stories series (see below
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Jill Murphy

Jill Murphy was a London-born English children's author, best known for The Worst Witch series and the Large Family picture books. She has been described as "one of the most engaging writers and illustrators for children in the land."

Jill Murphy was born in London and attended the Ursuline Convent in Wimbledon which, together with the boarding school stories she enjoyed reading, provided much of the material and inspiration Miss Cackle's Academy in the The Worst Witch, which she started when she was 15. She put the book on hold as she attended both Chelsea and Croydon Art Schools, but continued to write it whilst living in a village in Togo, West Africa for a year and then whilst working as a nanny back at home. The book was published when
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Julian Gough

Julian Gough is an award winning author of funny stories about serious things. He won the BBC National Short Story Award in 2007 (when it was the biggest prize in the world for a single short story). His “The iHole” was shortlisted for the one-off BBC International Short Story Award in 2012. He has also been shortlisted, twice, for the Everyman Bollinger Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction.

He represented Ireland in Best European Fiction 2010; won a Pushcart Prize in the US in 2011; and represented Britain in Best British Short Stories 2012. London born and Irish raised, he now lives in Berlin.

He is the author of three novels, Juno & Juliet, Jude in Ireland, and Jude in London; two radio plays, The Great Hargeisa Goat Bubble, and The Great Squ
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Steven Butler

Steven is the award-winning author of the Nothing To See Here Hotel series (winner of the Sainsbury's Fiction Prize; shortlisted for the Laugh-Out-Loud "Lollies" award and Alligator's Mouth award; featured on W.H Smith's Tom Fletcher Bookclub), The Wrong Pong series (shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize), his new adaptation of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey for Hachette's Awesomely Austen series, and his comedy collaboration with American author, James Patterson, the Dog Diaries series.
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David Walliams

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

David Walliams is an actor and writer best known for his work with Matt Lucas in the multi-award-winning sketch show Little Britain. His debut children's novel, The Boy in the Dress, was published in 2008 to unanimous critical acclaim and he has since developed a reputation as a natural successor to Roald Dahl.
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Michelle Harrison

My first children's novel, THE 13 TREASURES, won the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize. THE OTHER ALICE won the Calderdale Book of the Year Award. A PINCH OF MAGIC won a Dutch Bronze Pen Award. My books have been translated and sold in 25 territories worldwide.

My latest novel is a sequel to TWICE UPON A TIME, publishing in Spring 2026 in the UK. My second picture book, THERE'S A SHARK IN MY PANTS! publishes in the UK in July 2025 and is illustrated by the incredible David Tazzyman.

Before becoming a full-time writer I worked in publishing as an editor, and before that, as a bookseller. Prior to that, I worked in bars, a bakery, and a second-hand record shop to make ends meet while trying to get my first book deal. I live in Essex and have a
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Dave Shelton

Dave Shelton is the author of Thirteen Chairs. His UK debut novel for children, A Boy And A Bear In A Boat, was shortlisted for numerous awards in the UK and won the Branford Boase Award, an award given to an outstanding children's or young adult novel by a first-time writer. He's also the creator of the UK comic strip "Good Dog, Bad Dog." He lives in Cambridge, England, with his family.
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Lee Strauss

For fans of Golden Age who-dun-its ~ from a USA TODAY Bestselling author!

You'll adore Lady Gold from the acclaimed Ginger Gold Mysteries series, and the spin of series, Higgins & Hawke.

Look for the connected 1950s era Rosa Reed Mysteries.

NEW ~ The Velvet Spy ~ The Wartime Journal of Ginger Gold

For more info visit: leestraussbooks.com
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Jennifer Bell

Londoner Jennifer Bell began working in children’s books as a specialist bookseller at Foyles, Charing Cross Road, one of the world’s most famous bookstores. After having the privilege of listening to children talk about their favorite books for many years, she started writing a book of her own on her lunch breaks.

For other authors with the same name, see Jennifer^^Bell.
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Sylvia Bishop

Sylvia Bishop spent an entire childhood reading fiction, dreaming up stories and pretending. She then tried very hard to get to grips with the real world by studying politics and going in to social science research. This was a shock. Thankfully, she discovered improvised comedy at university, which allowed her to carry on making up stories for at least 30% of her waking hours.

Now she writes her stories down, preferably by lamp-light with tea. She only ever really writes the bad ones: the good ones write themselves without warning, generally when she was planning to go to bed.

Sylvia now lives in London, where she continues to work in research, and is one half of improvised comedy duo the Peablossom Cabaret. Her first book for young readers,
Buy books on Amazon
Pamela Butchart

As a child, Pamela was lucky enough to grow up in a house full of pets and go to a primary school where lots of spooky and weird things happened (well, in her imagination at least). As a student, Pamela’s student jobs included: fishwife, teaching basketball in America, phlebotomist and Artist Liaison for a (really bad) Abba tribute band. Now, when she’s not writing or going out and about meeting readers, Pamela teaches philosophy to teenagers.

Her top selling stories include The Spy Who Loved School Dinners which won the Blue Peter Best Story Award and My Head Teacher is a Vampire Rat which won The Children’s Book Award. Two of her books, Petunia Peri and There’s a Werewolf in My Tent, were shortlisted for the Lollies – the Laugh Out Loud Aw
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Laura Ellen Anderson

Laura Ellen Anderson is the illustrator of several books for children, as well as the author-illustrator of the graphic novel Evil Emperor Penguin. Laura Ellen Anderson lives in London.
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Amy Wilson

Amy Wilson has a background in journalism and lives in Bristol with her young family. She is a graduate of the Bath Spa MA in Creative Writing and has many owls in her house, from drawer handles to cushions. She is still waiting for them to speak to her...
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Katya Balen

Katya Balen is a British author of children's literature. She was born in 1989, in London. Her novel October, October won the 2022 Carnegie Medal. Her work has also been nominated for the Branford Boase Award and the Wainwright Prize for Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation.
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Mel Pennant

Mel Pennant is an award-winning playwright whose work has appeared in the National Archives, as well as on stage. Born in London, she was raised by an extraordinary village, which included her Jamaican grandparents who moved to England in the 1950s as part of the Windrush generation. Mel is drawn to stories that explore what’s hidden below the surface and celebrate the richness and strength of tight-knit communities. She lives in London with her family and their dog, Bleu. A Murder for Miss Hortense is Mel’s first novel and she is currently writing another mystery novel starring Miss Hortense.

source: Amazon
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Katie Kirby

Katie Kirby is a writer and illustrator who lives by the sea in Hove with her husband, two sons and dog Sasha.

She has a degree in Advertising and Marketing and after spending several years working in London media agencies, which basically involved hanging out in fancy restaurants and pretending to know what she was talking about, she had some children and decided to start a blog called 'Hurrah for Gin' about the gross injustice of it all.

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Katie likes gin, rabbits, over-thinking things, the smell of launderettes and Monster Munch. She does not like losing at
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Dave Shelton

Dave Shelton is the author of Thirteen Chairs. His UK debut novel for children, A Boy And A Bear In A Boat, was shortlisted for numerous awards in the UK and won the Branford Boase Award, an award given to an outstanding children's or young adult novel by a first-time writer. He's also the creator of the UK comic strip "Good Dog, Bad Dog." He lives in Cambridge, England, with his family.
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