Kelly McCaughrain
Kelly was born in Belfast in 1977 and grew up in nineteenth-century Avonlea. She doesn’t remember much about her (probably very nice) childhood and suspects this is because she wasn’t paying attention. She was reading Anne of Green Gables.
She started writing when she was six.
She started hiding her writing when she was seven.
She was forced out of the writing closet when she was 35. One of her favourite activities is talking to teenagers about writing because she was too shy to do this when she was young.
She studied at Queens University Belfast, where she did two degrees. For fun. She currently lives with her husband Michael and their ancient VW campervan Gerda.
Her first novel, Flying Tips for Flightless Birds, has been described by insiders
If you like author Kelly McCaughrain here is the list of authors you may also like
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Patrice Lawrence
Patrice Lawrence is a British writer and journalist, who has published fiction both for adults and children. Her writing has won awards including the Waterstones Children's Book Prize for Older Children and The Bookseller YA Book Prize.
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Sita Brahmachari
Sita was born in Derby in 1966, to an Indian doctor from Kolkata and an English nurse from the Lake District. She has a BA in English Literature and an MA in Arts Education. Her many projects and writing commissions have been produced in theatres, universities, schools and community groups throughout Britain and America. ARTICHOKE HEARTS is her first novel for young people. Sita lives and works in North London with her husband, three children and a temperamental cat.
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Tia Fisher
I’m an author from south-east England, writing from middle-grade to YA in prose and verse. I love exploring important issues: writing gritty, realistic fiction for young people; accessible fiction that opens conversations.
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Crossing the Line, my debut teen verse novel about a boy who gets caught up in county lines drug exploitation, won the 2024 Carnegie Shadowers’ Medal, the 2024 UKLA prize, was in the 2024 Read for Empathy collection and was one of The Times and Sunday Times’ best children’s books of 2024.
Grab yourself an early read of Not Going to Plan, a YA verse novel about teenage sexuality, consent, and the right to make choices without shame or blame. https://lnk.to/NotGoingToPlan -
Sophie Cameron
Sophie Cameron is the author of several novels for teens and young adults. Her books have been shortlisted for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing, the UKLA Book Awards, the Polari Children's & YA Prize and the Diverse Book Awards, among others, and won a Leeds Book Award in 2023. Originally from the Scottish Highlands, she now lives in Spain with her wife and their twin sons.
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Anthony McGowan
Anthony John McGowan is an English author of books for children, teenagers and adults. He is the winner of the 2020 CILIP Carnegie Medal for Lark. In addition to his 2020 win, he has been twice longlisted (for The Knife That Killed Me in 2008 and Brock in 2014) and once shortlisted (for Rook in 2018) for the CILIP Carnegie Medal, and is the winner of the 2006 Booktrust Teenage Prize for Henry Tumour.
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Joseph Coelho
Joseph Coelho is a British poet and children's book author who was elected Children's Laureate in 2022.
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Zillah Bethell
Zillah Bethell was born in a leprosy hospital 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 now lives in Wales with her family.
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Zillah has written three adult novels (SEAHORSES ARE REAL / LE TEMPS DES CERISES / GIRL IN PROFILE) and three children's novels (THE SHARK CALLER / A WHISPER OF HORSES / THE EXTRAORDINARY COLOURS OF AUDEN DARE) -
Matt Goodfellow
Matt Goodfellow was a primary school teacher for more than ten years before becoming a full-time poet and author. Shu Lin’s Grandpa is his first book with Candlewick Press. He lives with his wife and children in Manchester, England.
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Phil Earle
Phil was born in Hull in 1974, and he studied English and Drama at Hull University. He worked for a year as a carer in a children’s home, then after training as a drama therapist, he worked in a therapeutic community in London, which cared for multiply abused adolescents. Then, changing tack completely, he chose a marginally more sedate life as a children’s bookseller. It was here that he developed an obsession for kid’s literature, in particular, young adult fiction.
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After three years at Ottakar’s, he became a sales rep, and then a key account manager for Transworld/Random House, and is now sales director at Simon and Schuster Children’s Books.
Phil lives in South East London with his wife and three young children. -
Elle McNicoll
Hey, I'm Elle. I'm Scottish, autistic and an author/screenwriter who is really bad at logging her reading choices.
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I write about autistic girls finding out who they are and what makes them happy, because I'm an autistic girl trying to find out who she is and what makes her happy.
I don't read reviews, as they are for readers, but I'm grateful to any and everyone who engages with my work, on the page or on the screen. My Young Adult Romance debut is called Some Like It Cold in it will be published on the 3rd of October. Official professional shiz below:
Elle McNicoll is a bestselling and award-winning novelist and screenwriter. Her debut, A Kind of Spark, won the Blue Peter Book Award and the Overall Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, as well -
Lesley Parr
Lesley Parr grew up in South Wales and now lives in England with her husband and their rescue cat, Angharad. She shares her time between writing stories, teaching at a primary school and tutoring adults. Apart from books, rugby union is her favourite thing in the world, especially if Wales is winning. Lesley graduated with distinction from Bath Spa University's MA in Writing for Young People. The Valley of Lost Secrets is her first novel.
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Akala
Kingslee James McLean Daley, better known by the stage name Akala, is an English rapper, author, poet, and political activist.
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Originally from Kentish Town, London he is the younger brother of rapper/vocalist Ms. Dynamite. In 2006, he was voted the Best Hip Hop Act at the MOBO Awards. He was awarded an honourary doctorate by the University of Brighton in 2018.
In May 2018, Akala published Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire. The book is part memoir, part polemic, on the subject of race in modern Britain.
Akala has given guest lectures at East 15 Acting School, University of Essex, Manchester Metropolitan University, Sydney University, Sheffield Hallam University, Cardiff University, and the International Slavery Museum, as well as -
Liz Hyder
Liz Hyder is a writer and creative workshop leader. In early 2018, she won The Bridge Award/Moniack Mhor Emerging Writer Award. Her debut novel for young adults, Bearmouth, was named The Times Children's Book of the Year in 2019, won the Waterstones Children's Book for Older Readers 2020 and the Branford Boase Award 2020. It was also shortlisted for the UKLA Awards and nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal. Her debut book for adults, The Gifts, published in hardback in February 2022 (UK and Commonwealth). Originally from London, she now lives in South Shropshire in a small medieval market town surrounded by hills, books and plants.
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Sufiya Ahmed
Sufiya Ahmed was born in India and arrived in the UK as a baby. She lived in Bolton, Lancashire, before moving to London where she still lives. Sufiya has worked in advertising and in the House of Commons, but is now a full-time author. In 2010 Sufiya set up the BIBI Foundation, a non-profit organisation, to arrange visits to the Houses of Parliament for diverse and underprivileged school children.
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Candy Gourlay
Candy Gourlay was born in the Philippines, grew up under a dictatorship and met her husband during a revolution. She had many adventures as a journalist in Asia, including visiting North Korea in 1987. Then she moved to the UK and found herself writing news about toilet paper, toothpaste and bleach. She pivoted to writing books for children and young adults and was published after nine years of rejection. Her books have been nominated for major prizes in Europe, including the Carnegie, the Guardian Prize, the Costa and the Nero Book Award. She has won the National Children’s Book Award of the Philippines twice and the Crystal Kite Prize for Europe twice. Her first novel Tall Story was selected as one of the ‘100 Best Books of the Last 100 Y
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Margaret McDonald
Margaret McDonald is a Scottish author from Glasgow. She has been published in various poetry and prose magazines, including The Manifest Station, In Parentheses, Breath and Shadow, and Bandit Fiction. She is a first-generation university student and holds an MLitt in English Literature with distinction (Glasgow University) and a first class B.A Honours in Creative Writing with English Literature (Strathclyde University). She writes about the working class experience, the student experience, and the Scottish healthcare system as a former NHS employee and disabled author. Glasgow Boys is her debut.
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Ashley Hickson-Lovence
Ashley Hickson-Lovence was born in London in 1991 and is a former secondary school English teacher with a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of East Anglia. His debut novel, The 392, was released in April 2019 and his second novel, Your Show, was released in April 2022. His third book, a YA-in-verse called Wild East, is released with Penguin in May 2024.
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Cathryn Constable
Cathryn Constable read Theology at Cambridge University. She then worked at Vogue, W, Elle Decoration, Elle and The Independent.
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She also wrote for a number of publications including Tatler, and The Sunday Times, before turning her hand to writing for children.
She is married with three children and lives in Islington, London. -
Gavin Extence
Gavin Extence was born in 1982 and grew up in the interestingly named village of Swineshead, Lincolnshire. From the ages of 5-11, he enjoyed a brief but illustrious career as a chess player, winning numerous national championships and travelling to Moscow and St Petersburg to pit his wits against the finest young minds in Russia. He won only one game.
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Gavin is currently working on his second novel. When he is not writing, he enjoys cooking, amateur astronomy and going to Alton Towers. -
Rachel Delahaye
Rachel Delahaye writes children's fiction. Her teen sci-fi, Electric Life was longlisted for the 2024 Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing, and her upper middle-grade eco thriller Day of the Whale was nominated for the 2023 Yoto Carnegie.
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Her catalogue includes a middle-grade series called Mort the Meek - a dark and gruesome comedy, described as 'Pratchetesque' by The Guardian, an animal adventure series published by Little Tiger, and a three-book comedy series, Jim Reaper, published with Piccadilly Press.
There are more middle grade and teen projects on the horizon. Rachel also writes fiction and poetry for accelerated reading schemes and Level Readers to help children gain reading confidence. -
Alastair Chisholm
Alastair is an award-winning children's author and puzzle creator. He's the author of the sci-fi middle-grade adventures ORION LOST and ADAM-2 , and children's picture books THE PRINCE AND THE WITCH AND THE THIEF AND THE BEARS and INCH AND GRUB, as well as books of Sudoku, Kakuro and other puzzles, including the Kids' Book of Sudoku and Kids' Book of Kakuro series.
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Alastair lives in Edinburgh with his wife (who is lovely), two children (who are lovely but very loud), and a cat who is yowling at him even though there is clearly food in her bowl, look, it’s right there, *look*.
You can follow him on Twitter at @alastair_ch -
Jenny Valentine
Jenny Valentine moved house every two years when she was growing up. She has just moved house again, probably not for the last time. She worked in a wholefood shop in Primrose Hill for fifteen years where she met many extraordinary people and sold more organic loaves than there are words in her first novel. She has also worked as a teaching assistant and a jewellery maker. She studied English Literature at Goldsmiths College, which almost put her off reading but not quite.
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Jenny is married to a singer/songwriter and has two children.
In 2007, Jenny won the Guardian Prize for Children's Fiction with her debut novel FINDING VIOLET PARK. -
Lucy Mangan
Lucy Mangan (born 1974) is a British journalist and author. She is a columnist, features writer and TV critic for The Guardian. Her writing style is both feminist and humorous.
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Mangan grew up in Catford, south east London, but both her parents were originally from Lancashire. She studied English at Cambridge University and trained to be a solicitor. After qualifying as a solicitor, she began to work instead in a bookshop and then, in 2003, found a work experience placement at The Guardian.
She continues to work at The Guardian writing a regular column and TV reviews plus occasional features. Her book My Family and other Disasters (2009) is a collection of her newspaper columns. She has also written books about her childhood and her wedding.
Ma -
Tom Percival
Tom Percival writes and illustrates picture books (you know, for kids) as well as illustrating books written by other people. The most well known of these is probably the excellent Skulduggery Pleasant series by Derek Landy.
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He grew up in a remote and beautiful part of South Shropshire. On reflection this seemed rather more remote than beautiful, owing to the fact that he lived in a small caravan without electricity, mains water or any sensible form of heating. He thinks that he’s probably one of the few people in his peer group to have learnt to read by gas lamp.
Surprisingly enough he has never been called ‘hippy’ (to the best of his knowledge)
Tom now lives in an actual house with his girlfriend and their two young sons.
His favourite colour -
Phil Earle
Phil was born in Hull in 1974, and he studied English and Drama at Hull University. He worked for a year as a carer in a children’s home, then after training as a drama therapist, he worked in a therapeutic community in London, which cared for multiply abused adolescents. Then, changing tack completely, he chose a marginally more sedate life as a children’s bookseller. It was here that he developed an obsession for kid’s literature, in particular, young adult fiction.
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After three years at Ottakar’s, he became a sales rep, and then a key account manager for Transworld/Random House, and is now sales director at Simon and Schuster Children’s Books.
Phil lives in South East London with his wife and three young children. -
Brian Conaghan
Brian Conaghan lives and works in the Scottish town of Coatbridge. He has a Master of Letters in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow, and worked as a teacher for many years. His novel When Mr Dog Bites was shortlisted for the 2015 CILIP Carnegie Medal. The Bombs That Brought Us Together won the 2016 Costa Children’s Book Award, The Weight of a Thousand Feathers won the 2018 Irish Book Award for Teen/YA Book of the Year, and We Come Apart, a verse novel co-authored with Carnegie Medal-winner Sarah Crossan, won the 2018 UKLA Book Award. Cardboard Cowboys, Brian’s first middle-grade novel, published in 2021 and is full of his trademark heart, humour and crackling dialogue. Swimming on the Moon is his second middle-grade novel. @Con
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Sarah Crossan
Sarah Crossan is Irish. She graduated with a degree in Philosophy and Literature before training as an English and Drama teacher at Cambridge University and worked to promote creative writing in schools before leaving teaching to write full time.
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She completed her Masters in Creative Writing at the University of Warwick in 2003 and in 2010 received an Edward Albee Fellowship for writing.
She currently lives in NYC. -
Holly Bourne
Holly started her writing career as a news journalist, where she was nominated for Best Print Journalist of the Year. She then spent six years working as an editor, a relationship advisor, and general ‘agony aunt’ for a youth charity – helping young people with their relationships and mental health.
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Inspired by what she saw, she started writing teen fiction, including the best-selling, award-winning ‘Spinster Club’ series which helps educate teenagers about feminism. When she turned thirty, Holly wrote her first adult novel, 'How Do You Like Me Now?', examining the intensified pressures on women once they hit that landmark.
Alongside her writing, Holly has a keen interest in women’s rights and is an advocate for reducing the stigma of mental -
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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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, -
Clare Furniss
Furniss grew up in London, and moved to Birmingham in her teens. After brief stints as a waitress, a shop assistant, and working at the Shakespeare Centre Library in Stratford-upon-Avon, she studied at Cambridge and Aberdeen. She went on to work in media relations for the homelessness charity Shelter and spent several years as a press officer for the then Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone. She now lives in Bath.
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Matt Goodfellow
Matt Goodfellow was a primary school teacher for more than ten years before becoming a full-time poet and author. Shu Lin’s Grandpa is his first book with Candlewick Press. He lives with his wife and children in Manchester, England.
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Joseph Coelho
Joseph Coelho is a British poet and children's book author who was elected Children's Laureate in 2022.
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Sophie Cameron
Sophie Cameron is the author of several novels for teens and young adults. Her books have been shortlisted for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing, the UKLA Book Awards, the Polari Children's & YA Prize and the Diverse Book Awards, among others, and won a Leeds Book Award in 2023. Originally from the Scottish Highlands, she now lives in Spain with her wife and their twin sons.
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Ashley Hickson-Lovence
Ashley Hickson-Lovence was born in London in 1991 and is a former secondary school English teacher with a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of East Anglia. His debut novel, The 392, was released in April 2019 and his second novel, Your Show, was released in April 2022. His third book, a YA-in-verse called Wild East, is released with Penguin in May 2024.
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Tia Fisher
I’m an author from south-east England, writing from middle-grade to YA in prose and verse. I love exploring important issues: writing gritty, realistic fiction for young people; accessible fiction that opens conversations.
Buy books on Amazon
Crossing the Line, my debut teen verse novel about a boy who gets caught up in county lines drug exploitation, won the 2024 Carnegie Shadowers’ Medal, the 2024 UKLA prize, was in the 2024 Read for Empathy collection and was one of The Times and Sunday Times’ best children’s books of 2024.
Grab yourself an early read of Not Going to Plan, a YA verse novel about teenage sexuality, consent, and the right to make choices without shame or blame. https://lnk.to/NotGoingToPlan -
Margaret McDonald
Margaret McDonald is a Scottish author from Glasgow. She has been published in various poetry and prose magazines, including The Manifest Station, In Parentheses, Breath and Shadow, and Bandit Fiction. She is a first-generation university student and holds an MLitt in English Literature with distinction (Glasgow University) and a first class B.A Honours in Creative Writing with English Literature (Strathclyde University). She writes about the working class experience, the student experience, and the Scottish healthcare system as a former NHS employee and disabled author. Glasgow Boys is her debut.
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Kim Slater
Librarian Note: Kim Slater is a pen name of K.L. Slater, at which site biographical information may be found.
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Brian Conaghan
Brian Conaghan lives and works in the Scottish town of Coatbridge. He has a Master of Letters in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow, and worked as a teacher for many years. His novel When Mr Dog Bites was shortlisted for the 2015 CILIP Carnegie Medal. The Bombs That Brought Us Together won the 2016 Costa Children’s Book Award, The Weight of a Thousand Feathers won the 2018 Irish Book Award for Teen/YA Book of the Year, and We Come Apart, a verse novel co-authored with Carnegie Medal-winner Sarah Crossan, won the 2018 UKLA Book Award. Cardboard Cowboys, Brian’s first middle-grade novel, published in 2021 and is full of his trademark heart, humour and crackling dialogue. Swimming on the Moon is his second middle-grade novel. @Con
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Stewart Foster
Stewart Foster lives in Bath and wishes he'd never left school. So he went back to university far too many years later and he wrote a book, We used to be Kings, and then he wrote another, The Bubble Boy, that was loved by The Guardian and many others. It won Sainsbury's book of the year 2016 (10+) and The Trinity Schools Book Award 2017 and many other library awards
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'All the things that could go Wrong" has also won many school and library awards, and continues to be shortlisted.
His next novel will be published in May 2019
Like his page on Facebook - Stewart Foster Author and follow him on twitter @stewfoster1. -
Kel Duckhouse
Kel Duckhouse was born in Leytonstone, London. She currently lives with her three children in Wiltshire, where she works as an Author, Poet and Spoken Word Artist. Kel graduated with distinction from Bath Spa University, where she studied a Masters in Writing for Young People. Kel started her career as a poet and performer and loves works with musicians to put her poetry to music. The Bones of Me is her debut novel. When she's not writing, she's campaigning for social causes or dying her hair pink. Her dream is to buy a camper van and travel the UK and Europe writing.
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Matt Killeen
MATT KILLEEN was born in Birmingham, in the UK, back when trousers were wide and everything was brown. Early instruction in his craft included being told that a drawing of a Cylon exploding isn't writing and copying out your mother's payslip isn't an essay "about my family". Several alternative careers beckoned, some involving laser guns and guitars, before he finally returned to words and attempted to make a living as an advertising copywriter and largely ignored music and sports journalist. He now writes for the world's best loved toy company, as it wasn't possible to be an X-wing pilot. Married to his Nuyorican soul mate, he is parent to both an unfeasibly clever teenager and a toddler who is challenging his father's antiestablishment cr
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Piu DasGupta
Piu DasGupta is the author of dark, twisty, Gothic books of fiction for children, teens, and adults.
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Her debut Middle Grade novel, SECRETS OF THE SNAKESTONE, is released on 14th March 2024 with Nosy Crow.
Piu lives in Paris, France, with her family and two cats. -
Nicholas Bowling
Nicholas Bowling is an author, stand-up comic, musician, and Latin teacher from London. He graduated from Oxford University in 2007 with a BA in Classics and English, and again in 2010 with a Masters in Greek and Latin Language and Literature, before moving to his first teaching job at Trinity School, Croydon. While writing Witchborn, he also performed a solo show at the Edinburgh festival, and has co-written, recorded and released an album and two EPs with soul-folk singer Mary Erskine, Me For Queen. Witchborn is his debut novel.
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Lisa Balavoine
Lisa Balavoine vit et travaille à Amiens comme professeur-documentaliste.
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Eparse est son premier roman, dont des extraits ont été publiés dans la revue Décapage. -
Tamsin Winter
"Tamsin Winter is fast becoming a favourite for younger teenagers, chronicling those first years at secondary school with warmth and honesty."
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- The Observer
Tamsin Winter grew up in a tiny Northamptonshire village where she spent her childhood reading books and writing stories. She studied English Literature and Creative Writing at university, and has taught English at secondary level for many years.
Her award-winning novel, Being Miss Nobody (Usborne Publishing) tells the story of eleven-year-old Rosalind who can't speak. The book tackles themes of bullying, anxiety and social media in a fresh, funny and compelling voice and recently won the Awesome Book Award 2019. Tamsin's second novel, Jemima Small Versus the Universe is a bold, funny, h -
A. Connors
A. Connors is a former physicist and former child who likes writing stories and building unlikely, poorly thought through gadgets.
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His favourite bio tidbits include: spending his PHD underground at CERN, helping design one of the detectors for the Large Hadron Collider; teaching physics in Sudan; selling encyclopedias in Chicago and fitting Wi-Fi in the refugee camps in Greece.
In his spare time he manages an engineering team for Google Health, a project that aims to use big data and machine learning to improve the quality of healthcare. He lives in Hertfordshire with his partner, two boys, and a dog.
His debut transformative and spine-tingling teen novel, THE GIRL WHO BROKE THE SEA, will be published by Scholastic UK in Feb 2023. -
Kate Rolfe
Hello, I’m Kate. I like to work in cyanotype (print-making with sunlight) and mixed media, as well as working digitally. I enjoy stories that ask important, and sometimes difficult questions, but in a warm and hopeful way.
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I am proudly neurodivergent and enjoy talking about how our minds work differently, and how vital that is! I’m passionate about authentic storytelling and enjoy making work that is vulnerable, honest, and born of my own experiences. My books aim to meet you within the realm of your own personal experiences too, whether you are 2 years old or 102! I’m continually blown away by the messages I receive from all ages saying that they have deeply resonated with my work. It means the world to me!
Aside from writing & illustrating -
Alastair Chisholm
Alastair is an award-winning children's author and puzzle creator. He's the author of the sci-fi middle-grade adventures ORION LOST and ADAM-2 , and children's picture books THE PRINCE AND THE WITCH AND THE THIEF AND THE BEARS and INCH AND GRUB, as well as books of Sudoku, Kakuro and other puzzles, including the Kids' Book of Sudoku and Kids' Book of Kakuro series.
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Alastair lives in Edinburgh with his wife (who is lovely), two children (who are lovely but very loud), and a cat who is yowling at him even though there is clearly food in her bowl, look, it’s right there, *look*.
You can follow him on Twitter at @alastair_ch -
Manjeet Mann
Manjeet is an actress, playwright, screenwriter and director. She is the founder of Run The World - an organization that works with women and girls from marginalized backgrounds and helps to empower them through sport and storytelling. She lives in Kent.
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Abena Eyeson
PhD educated Abena Eyeson was born in Ghana but has lived in England since she was a child.
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In July 2025, RUNNING MY OWN RACE, her debut middle grade novel, was published by Nosy Crow in the UK. Centred around eleven year old Kofi, it's a story about family, friendship, gaining courage and going for your dreams.
In 2021, she completed the Faber Academy Writing a Novel course. In the same year, she became a Faber Children’s FAB Prize Commended Text winner and was longlisted for the Jericho Prize for one of her picture books. She was longlisted for the TLC Pen Factor in 2022 and was added to the Oxford University Press’ (OUP) Primary Literacy list as a potential author. Her first book for OUP Primary, Our Family Farm, was published in 2024.
In -
Kate Milner
Kate studied illustration at Central St Martin’s, and graduated with an MA in Children’s Book Illustration at Anglia Ruskin in 2016. Her work has been published in magazines, and her illustrations and prints have been shown in London galleries and national touring exhibitions.
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Kate is passionate about libraries and has been involved with her local library in every kind of activity from Storytime for toddlers to teen reading groups. -
Julian Sedgwick
Julian Sedgwick is a writer of many books for children, including the Mysterium trilogy, the Ghosts of Shanghai trilogy, and the graphic novel Dark Satanic Mills, cowritten with his brother, Marcus Sedgwick, and illustrated by John Higgins and Marc Olivent. Julian Sedgwick lives in England.
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Kate De Goldi
Kate De Goldi is a full-time writer who grew up in Christchurch and now lives in Wellington. Her first book was for adults: called like you, really, it was published under the name Kate Flannery, and gave a series of interlinked short stories about the women in a Catholic family. Since then she has won numerous awards and accolades for her fiction, including the American Express and Katherine Mansfield Awards for short stories, and the overall Children’s Book Award in 1997 for her young adult novel Sanctuary.
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In 2000, her novel about adoption, Closed, Stranger won an Honour Award in the New Zealand Post Children and Young Adults' Book Awards, and in 2001, Kate was made an Arts Foundation Laureate. Her book Clubs, illustrated by Jacqui Colley -
Natália Gomes
AKA N.D. Gomes
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ND Gomes is originally from Scotland, but spent ten years living in America working as an educator in the public school districts.
She has an M.Ed. in Education and is working towards an MLitt. in Scottish Literature and Creative Writing.
She loves to read a variety of YA and adult fiction in all genres, and is always on the lookout for a new book recommendation. ND Gomes has an enthusiasm for books, travel, photography, yoga, vegetarian cooking, and spending time with her family, friends, and chocolate Labrador.
Her YA debut DEAR CHARLIE and second novel BLACKBIRD is published by HarperCollins imprint HQ in the UK.
ND Gomes is represented by Silvia Molteni at Peters, Fraser and Dunlop -
Keith Gray
Keith Gray grew up in and around Grimsby and Cleethorpes on the east coast of England and decided he'd better take his writing ambition seriously after achieving 0% in his accountancy exams. His debut, 'Creepers', was published when he was only 24 and was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize. Since then his books have either won or been shortlisted for awards all over the world including the Sankei Cultural Publishing Prize of Japan, the American Library Association Best Books (YA) and the Booktrust Teenage Prize. In the UK his bestselling novel 'Ostrich Boys' was shortlisted for the prestigious CILIP Carnegie Medal, the Costa Children's Book Award and won the Scottish Children's Book Awards, and has been adapted for the stage. Keith
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Alice Nuttall
Alice Nuttall is a writer, knitter, D&D player and coffee thief. She lives in Oxfordshire with her husband and two sleepy cats.
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Roopa Farooki
Roopa was brought up in London and graduated from New College in Oxford in 1995. She worked in advertising and it 2004 quit to write full time. She now lives in south east London and south west France with her husband and two sons. Bitter Sweets is her first novel and in 2007 it was nominated for the Orange Award for New Writer.
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Her second novel, Corner Shop was released in October 2008 and her third novel is due in 2009. -
Hannah Shaw
Hannah Shaw was born into a large family of sprout munching vegetarians.
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As is the oldest child, she spent her formative years trying to be good at everything; from roller-skating to gymnastics. Hannah soon realised there wasn’t much chance of her becoming a gold medal winning gymnast, so she resigned herself to drawing pictures and writing stories!
By some mean feat Hannah found herself at the University of Brighton doing a degree in illustration. Soon an overwhelming obsession to make books took over her life. Inspired by her love of furry animals, Hannah wrote and illustrated her first picture book Evil Weasel, published by Jonathan Cape (Random House) in 2008. Her next book Erroll, about a boy who finds a squirrel in his packet of nuts, i