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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Lucy Strange
Lucy Strange worked as an actor, singer and storyteller before becoming a secondary school English teacher. She now lives and writes in the heart of the Kent countryside with her partner James, their baby boy and a tortoiseshell cat known as Moo.
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Our Castle by the Sea is Lucy’s second novel for children, following her critically acclaimed debut, The Secret of Nightingale Wood. -
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Brenna Thummler
Brenna Thummler grew up in northwestern Pennsylvania, where she developed a great love for nature trails, peanut butter, and, above all, drawing. A graduate of Ringling College of Art and Design, she was named the Society of Illustrators Zankel Scholar during her junior year. Since graduation, she has done editorial and advertising work for such clients as the New York Times, the Washington Post, Razorfish, and Empathic Films LLC. While Anne of Green Gables is her first published graphic novel, her first original graphic novel is Sheets. In those rare moments she’s not creating art, you might find her dancing, making music, baking cheesecakes, or spending time with kindred spirits.
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Maria Kuzniar
Maria Kuzniar (who is also published as M.A. Kuzniar) spent six years living in Spain, teaching English and travelling the world which inspired her children’s series The Ship of Shadows. Her adult debut novel Midnight in Everwood was inspired by her love of ballet and love of The Nutcracker. She lives in Nottingham with her husband, where she reads and writes as much as can and bookstagrams @cosyreads.
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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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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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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) -
Steven Camden
Steven Camden is one of the most acclaimed spoken-word artists in the country. As Polarbear, he has performed extensively around the UK and internationally. He also writes plays, teaches storytelling in schools, and was a lead artist for Ministry of Stories and The Roundhouse poetry collective.
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Geraldine McCaughrean
Geraldine McCaughrean is a British children's novelist. She has written more than 170 books, including Peter Pan in Scarlet (2004), the official sequel to Peter Pan commissioned by Great Ormond Street Hospital, the holder of Peter Pan's copyright. Her work has been translated into 44 languages worldwide. She has received the Carnegie Medal twice and the Michael L. Printz Award among others.
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Jenny Pearson
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Gus Gordon
Gus Gordon is an internationally acclaimed illustrator and author. He has illustrated and written over 80 books for children.
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Gus’s stories are typically character orientated and appeal to both children and adults alike. His illustrations are known for their loose and energetic line work, mixed media and humour, however, collage is the medium he is widely recognised for. Much of his work contains old ephemeral paper items such as catalogue engravings, postcards, advertisements, receipts, stamps, theatre programs and maps.
His writing is always anthropomorphic – where animals take the place of humans in the narrative. He attributes this to an early love of Kenneth Grahame's Wind in The Willows and Richard Scarry’s 'Busy' stories.
Gus’ books wh -
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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Ross Montgomery
Ross Montgomery has worked as a pig farmer, a postman and a primary school teacher, so writing books was the next logical step. He spent his childhood reading everything he could get his hands on, from Jacqueline Wilson to Beano annuals, and it taught him pretty much everything that's worth knowing. If you looked through his pockets you'd find empty crisp packets, lists of things to do, and a bottle of that stuff you put on your nails to stop you biting them. He lives in London with his girlfriend, a cat called Fun Bobby, and a cactus on every available surface.
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Marte Jongbloed
Marte Jongbloed schrijft graag spannende verhalen waarin wonderlijke personages een rol spelen. Dat is geen toeval want ze is afgestudeerd aan de toneelacademie. Schrijven combineert ze met haar werk als dramadocent op een internationale school. Naast kinder- en jeugdboeken schrijft ze ook toneelteksten.
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Marte woont met haar drie kinderen, haar man, drie katten en een hond in Den Haag. -
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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Blanca Gómez
Blanca Gomez started creating illustrations for her mother when she was a kid. Now, she illustrates for clients around the world. Blanca lives and works in Madrid, Spain.
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M.G. Leonard
M. G. Leonard is a writer of books, poems and screenplays. She has a first-class honours degree in English literature and an MA in Shakespeare Studies from Kings College London. She works as a freelance Digital Media Producer for clients such as the National Theatre, and Harry Potter West End, and previously worked as a Senior Digital Producer at the National Theatre, the Royal Opera House and Shakespeare’s Globe. She spent her early career in the music industry running Setanta Records, an independent record label, and managing bands, most notably The Divine Comedy. After leaving the music industry, she trained as an actor, dabbling in directing and producing as well as performing, before deciding to write her stories down. Maya lives in Br
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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.
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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 -
Janice Hallett
Janice Hallett is a former magazine editor, award-winning journalist, and government communications writer. She wrote articles and speeches for, among others, the Cabinet Office, Home Office, and Department for International Development. Her enthusiasm for travel has taken her around the world several times, from Madagascar to the Galapagos, Guatemala to Zimbabwe, Japan, Russia, and South Korea. A playwright and screenwriter, she penned the feminist Shakespearean stage comedy NetherBard and cowrote the feature film Retreat. The Appeal is her first novel.
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Hannah Gold
Hannah Gold worked in the film and magazine industries before taking time out to pursue her dream of writing. She lives in Lincolnshire with her tortoise, her cat and her husband. This is her middle grade debut.
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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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S.F. Said
Said grew up in the Iraqi diasporic community in London, moving there with his mother at the age of two. After graduating from the University of Cambridge, he worked as a press attaché and speech writer for the Crown Prince of Jordan’s office in London. He began a Ph.D. in 1997 looking at the lives of young Muslims in Britain, but left academia to focus on film journalism for the Daily Telegraph – where he brought attention to much 'world cinema', including contemporary Islamic cinema – and writing for children
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Ele Fountain
Ele Fountain worked as an editor in children’s publishing where she was responsible for launching and nurturing the careers of many prize-winning and bestselling authors.
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She lived in Addis Ababa for several years, where she was inspired to write Boy 87, her debut novel. Ele lives in what she describes as a “not quite falling down house” in Hampshire with her husband, two young daughters and lots of spiders. -
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. -
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. -
Malorie Blackman
An award-winning children's author, Malorie Blackman was honoured with an OBE in 2008. Her work has been adapted for TV and stage.
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More information available at:
Myspace
British Council: Contemporary Authors
British Council: Encompass Culture
Channel 4 Learning: Book Box -
Kereen Getten
Kereen Getten grew up in Jamaica where she would climb fruit trees in the family garden and eat as much mango, guinep and pear as she could without being caught. She now lives in Birmingham with her family and writes stories about her childhood experiences. When Life Gives You Mangos is her debut novel.
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Visit her on n Instagram @Kereengetten -
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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David Almond
David Almond is a British children's writer who has penned several novels, each one to critical acclaim. He was born and raised in Felling and Newcastle in post-industrial North East England and educated at the University of East Anglia. When he was young, he found his love of writing when some short stories of his were published in a local magazine. He started out as an author of adult fiction before finding his niche writing literature for young adults.
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His first children's novel, Skellig (1998), set in Newcastle, won the Whitbread Children's Novel of the Year Award and also the Carnegie Medal. His subsequent novels are: Kit's Wilderness (1999), Heaven Eyes (2000), Secret Heart (2001), The Fire Eaters (2003) and Clay (2005). His first play -
Janice Hallett
Janice Hallett is a former magazine editor, award-winning journalist, and government communications writer. She wrote articles and speeches for, among others, the Cabinet Office, Home Office, and Department for International Development. Her enthusiasm for travel has taken her around the world several times, from Madagascar to the Galapagos, Guatemala to Zimbabwe, Japan, Russia, and South Korea. A playwright and screenwriter, she penned the feminist Shakespearean stage comedy NetherBard and cowrote the feature film Retreat. The Appeal is her first novel.
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Elizabeth Laird
Laird was born in New Zealand in 1943, the fourth of five children. Her father was a ship's surgeon; both he and Laird's mother were Scottish. In 1945, Laird and her family returned to Britain and she grew up in South London, where she was educated at Croydon High School.
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When she was eighteen, Laird started teaching at a school in Malaysia. She decided to continue her adventurous life, even though she was bitten by a poisonous snake and went down with typhoid.
After attending the university in Bristol, Laird began teaching English in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She and a friend would hire mules and go into remote areas in the holidays.
After a while at Edinburgh University, Laird worked in India for a summer. During travel, she met her future hu -
A.M. Dassu
A. M. Dassu is a multi award-winning writer of both non-fiction and fiction including the internationally acclaimed novel Boy, Everywhere, one of The Guardian’s, Bookriot’s, Kirkus’s, American Library Association's Booklist's, CLPE's and BookTrust’s Best Children’s Book of the Year. It has coveted starred reviews from Kirkus, Booklist and Publisher’s Weekly and is also an American Library Association's Notable Book. Boy, Everywhere also featured as one of The Guardian’s Children’s Best New Novels on publication in October 2020, is on Amnesty’s Books That Inspire Activism list and has been listed for 25 awards including the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and Carnegie Medal, and is the 2021 winner of The Little Rebels Award for Radical Fic
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Irene Vasco
Escritora colombiana nacida en Bogotá en 1952. Su labor profesional la ha mantenido vinculada desde todos los ámbitos al mundo de los libros: la creación, como autora; la promoción de la lectura, como coordinadora de programas de creatividad; y la comercialización, como gerente de una librería especializada en literatura infantil. Trabajó como asistente editorial de Gian Calvi en su taller de Artes Gráficas Casa de la Creación, fue directora de programación infantil y talleres de creatividad en la Fundación Rafael Pombo de Bogotá, y fue socia fundadora de Librería Espantapájaros y de Espantapájaros Taller.
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Ha publicado varios libros infantiles, entre los cuales se destacan Beatriz la lombriz y el ciempiés Andrés, premio Raimundo Susaeta (198 -
Liz Flanagan
Liz writes for children and young adults. She teaches creative writing, and lives in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, with her husband and two daughters. She used to be Centre Director at the Ted Hughes Arvon Centre, and previously worked in children's book publishing.
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Daniel Thompson
Librarian note:
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There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name
This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name -
Catherine Bruton
I live just outside Bath with my husband, Jonny, and my two children (plus two toy monkeys, six goldfish and we’re hoping to get some chickens!). I teach English two days a week at a local secondary school. I also write articles for newspapers and magazines. Oh, and I write novels too!
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Radhika Sanghani
I'm an author, journalist and screenwriter. My latest novel THIRTY THINGS I LOVE ABOUT MYSELF is coming out in January in the UK and US. I've also written two YA novels VIRGIN and NOT THAT EASY.
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I'm a freelance journalist for publications like the Telegraph, Daily Mail, Grazia and Glamour. I'm also a body positive campaigner and founded the #sideprofileselfie movement. In my spare time, I also teach yoga and created a volunteer initiative to paint elderly ladies' nails for Age UK. -
Jenny Pearson
Jenny Pearson is a technical writer and an artist who loves to write and draw. She enjoys working with kids, whether it's engaging them with arts and crafts activities, helping them learn basic concepts, or just inspiring cute moments. With loads of patience, sunny smiles, and a healthy dose of kindness, almost any day can be a great day.
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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 -
Jenny Downham
Jenny Downham (born 1964) is a British novelist and an ex-actor. In her first book, Before I Die, the fictional account of the last few months of a sixteen-year-old girl who has been dying of leukemia for 4 years. The book is told in the first person. The book was acclaimed and was short-listed for the 2007 Guardian Award and the 2008 Lancashire Children's Book of the Year, nominated for the 2008 Carnegie Medal and the 2008 Booktrust Teenage Prize, and won the 2008 Branford Boase Award.
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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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Pam Smy
Pam Smy studied Illustration at Cambridge School of Art, part of Anglia Ruskin University, where she now lectures part-time. Pam has illustrated books by Conan Doyle (The Hound of the Baskervilles), Julia Donaldson (Follow the Swallow) and Kathy Henderson (Hush, Baby, Hush!), among others. She lives in Cambridge.
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Rhian Tracey
TRUE COLOURS is Rhian Tracey's fourth book for Bloomsbury, and the first for a younger readership. Rhian has a BA in English Literature from Aberystwyth University and a PGCE in English and Drama Teaching from Cheltenham and Gloucester University. She works as an English and Drama teacher in Brackley. She has written stories since she was five years old.
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Karen Foxlee
Karen Foxlee is an Australian author who lives and writes in Queensland. Her young adult novels The Anatomy of Wings (UQP/Knopf/Atlantic) and The Midnight Dress (Knopf/UQP/Hot Key Books) have been published internationally to much acclaim. The Anatomy of Wings won the Commonwealth Writers Prize Best First Book 2008 (South Asia/Pacific), the Dobbie Award 2008, and a Parent’s Choice Gold Award in the U.S. The Midnight Dress was selected as an ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults title in 2014. Foxlee’s first middle grade novel Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy (Knopf / Hot Key Books) was published in January 2014 and to date has received several starred reviews.
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Karen Foxlee was born in Mount Isa, Queensland in 1971. She has worked most of her adult -
L.D. Lapinski
L. D. Lapinski is the best-selling author of JAMIE, Stepfather Christmas, and The Strangeworlds Travel Agency series, including Adventure in the Floating Mountains, which was a 2023 World Book Day title. JAMIE was nominated for the 2024 Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing.
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L. D's new middle-grade fantasy series ARTEZANS launches in February 2024 with the first book Artezans: The Forgotten Magic.
L. D.'s books are published around the world in fifteen languages, and each book in the Strangeworlds trilogy has been awarded a Kirkus star - one of the most coveted designations in the book industry,
marking books of exceptional merit.
L. D. Lapinski lives just outside Sherwood Forest with their family, a lot of books, and a cat called Hector. L. D. first -
Guy Bass
Guy is an award-winning author whose children's books series include Stitch Head, Skeleton Keys, Dinkin Dings, Spynosaur, The Legend of Frog and Atomic! In 2010 Dinkin Dings and the Frightening Things won the Blue Peter Award for Most Fun Book with Pictures.
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Guy's has also written plays for both adults and children. He has previously been a theatre producer, illustrator, temp, gerbil whisperer and has acted his way out of several paper bags.
Guy spent his childhood reading comics and hoping one day to become a superhero. He spends his adulthood in more or less the same way.
Guy lives in London with his wife and no dog - yet. -
Zana Fraillon
Zana Fraillon was born in Melbourne, but spent her early childhood in San Francisco.
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Zana has written two picture books for young children, a series for middle readers, and a novel for older readers based on research and accounts of survivors of the Forgotten Generation. She spent a year in China teaching English and now lives in Melbourne with her three sons, husband and two dogs.
When Zana isn't reading or writing, she likes to explore the museums and hidden passageways scattered across Melbourne. They provide the same excitement as that moment before opening a new book - preparing to step into the unknown where a whole world of possibilities awaits. -
M.G. Leonard
M. G. Leonard is a writer of books, poems and screenplays. She has a first-class honours degree in English literature and an MA in Shakespeare Studies from Kings College London. She works as a freelance Digital Media Producer for clients such as the National Theatre, and Harry Potter West End, and previously worked as a Senior Digital Producer at the National Theatre, the Royal Opera House and Shakespeare’s Globe. She spent her early career in the music industry running Setanta Records, an independent record label, and managing bands, most notably The Divine Comedy. After leaving the music industry, she trained as an actor, dabbling in directing and producing as well as performing, before deciding to write her stories down. Maya lives in Br
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Mel Taylor-Bessent
Founder of the hugely successful Authorfy and Little Star Writing, Mel Taylor-Bessent has made her career connecting readers to their favourite authors and encouraging children to write for pleasure. After gaining a Creative Writing degree, Mel launched her first business at the age of 22 and ran creative writing workshops for thousands of children aged 6-12. As a result, she also arranged hundreds of author events and witnessed first-hand the positive impact these interactions had on her students.
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In 2017, she decided to replicate this via online ‘Author Masterclasses’ on a website she created called Authorfy.com. Since then, Authorfy has gone on to win numerous awards, partner with the likes of World Book Day and BookTrust, and is used in -
Peter Bunzl
Peter Bunzl grew up in South London in a rambling Victorian house with three cats, two dogs, one little sister, an antique dealer dad, and an artist mum. As a child he found inspiration visiting TV and film sets, where his mum worked as a costume designer.
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After art college and film school, Peter worked as an animator on commercials, pop videos, and two BAFTA-winning children’s TV shows, and wrote and directed several successful short films.
Peter’s debut novel Cogheart was a Waterstones Book of the Month. It was shortlisted for the Waterstones Book Prize and the Branford Boase Award. Moonlocket was shortlisted for the Books Are My Bag Readers Award. Cogheart, Skycircus and Shadowsea were nominated for the Carnegie Medal.
Peter lives in North -
Benjamin Dean
Benjamin Dean is a London-based celebrity reporter. His biggest achievement to date is breaking the news that Rihanna can’t wink (she blinks, in case you were wondering). Benjamin can be found on Twitter as @notagainben tweeting about Rihanna and LGBTQ+ culture to his 10,000+ followers. Me, My Dad and the End of the Rainbow is his debut book and he's currently working on his second, publishing in 2022.
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David Farr
David Farr is is one of the UK's leading screenwriters and directors for film, TV and theatre. In 2009, he was appointed Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, where his productions of The Winter's Tale, King Lear and The Homecoming all opened to critical acclaim. David is known for his work on Spooks and his 2016 BBC adaptation of The Night Manager, starring Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston. He completed his first feature film, Hanna, in 2009, and has since adapted it into a hugely successful series for Amazon Prime. The Book of Stolen Dreams is his first novel.
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Ross Montgomery
Ross Montgomery has worked as a pig farmer, a postman and a primary school teacher, so writing books was the next logical step. He spent his childhood reading everything he could get his hands on, from Jacqueline Wilson to Beano annuals, and it taught him pretty much everything that's worth knowing. If you looked through his pockets you'd find empty crisp packets, lists of things to do, and a bottle of that stuff you put on your nails to stop you biting them. He lives in London with his girlfriend, a cat called Fun Bobby, and a cactus on every available surface.
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Emma Carroll
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After years of teaching English to secondary school students, Emma now writes full time. She graduated with distinction from Bath Spa University’s MA in Writing For Young People. In another life Emma wishes she’d written ‘Rebecca’ by Daphne Du Maurier. She lives in the Somerset hills with her husband and three terriers. -
Rob Lloyd Jones
Rob Lloyd Jones was born in San Francisco but grew up in London. He studied Egyptology at University where he learnt hieroglyphics, and often goes on digs with the Egypt Exploration Society. He is a senior editor at Usborne, for whom he has written over thirty books – mostly historical non-fiction, but also adaptations of classics such as JEKYLL AND HYDE and THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO. Rob is also a volunteer reading helper at a primary school in Clerkenwell and wrote episodes of the children’s TV show ‘Bernard’s Watch’ for Carlton Kids. He lives in south London with his wife Sally, and 14-month-old son Otis.
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Ben Davis
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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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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Fiona MacKenzie
This is the disambiguation profile for otherwise unseparated authors publishing as Fiona MacKenzie
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Harry Baker
I have loved words from a young age and been a full-time poet since I graduated from Bristol with a maths degree in 2015. Most commonly this takes the form on standing on stages and sharing my words with others, but I am always looking to collaborate with new people and find new places to take it.
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I become the youngest ever Poetry World Slam Champion in 2012, and my first collection of poems The Sunshine Kid was published with Burning Eye in December 2014 - I am currently working on my second collection, as well as regularly giving workshops and performances and having fun touring around the UK as part of Harry And Chris. -
Benjamin Zephaniah
A British-Jamaican writer, dub poet and Rastafari. He was included in The Times list of Britain's top 50 post-war writers in 2008.
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Marte Jongbloed
Marte Jongbloed schrijft graag spannende verhalen waarin wonderlijke personages een rol spelen. Dat is geen toeval want ze is afgestudeerd aan de toneelacademie. Schrijven combineert ze met haar werk als dramadocent op een internationale school. Naast kinder- en jeugdboeken schrijft ze ook toneelteksten.
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Marte woont met haar drie kinderen, haar man, drie katten en een hond in Den Haag. -
Onjali Q. Raúf
Onjali Q. Rauf is the founder of Making Herstory, an organisation mobilising men, women and children from all walks of life to tackle the abuse and trafficking of women and girls in the UK and beyond. In her spare time she delivers emergency aid convoys for refugee families surviving in Calais and Dunkirk, and supports interfaith projects.
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Her first novel, The Boy at the Back of the Class, has sold over 100,000 copies and won multiple awards. Her second book, The Star Outside My Window, publishes in October 2019. -
Francesca Sanna
Francesca Sanna is an Italian illustrator and graphic designer based in Switzerland. After she finished her studies in Cagliari, the main city of her beloved Mediterranean island (Sardinia) she said goodbye to her family and her cat (Berta) and moved to Germany before and Switzerland after, in order to follow her dream and be able to work as illustrator. She graduated with honors in 2015 the Lucerne School of Art and Design, with a Master of Design with focus on Illustration.
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Jordan Matter
American photographer who won widespread acclaim for his New York Times bestselling book, Dancers Among Us: A Celebration of Joy in the Everyday. He followed up the book's success with another dancing photography book, Dancers After Dark.
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Gene Kemp
Gene Kemp was an English author known for children's books. Her first, The Pride of Tamworth Pig, appeared in 1972. She won the British Carnegie Medal for her school novel The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler (1977).
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Gene Kemp was born in Wigginton, Staffordshire in 1926. She grew up near Tamworth, Staffordshire, and went to Exeter University. She became a teacher and taught at St Sidwell's School in Exeter in the 1970s.
From 1972 she wrote stories for young readers about a pig named Tamworth, named after the town she grew up in. Kemp found inspiration for many of the characters in her books amongst the friends of her children, Chantal and Richard.
Her best known book is The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler, published by Faber's Children's Books in 19 -
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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William Grill
William Grill recently graduated from University College Falmouth, and currently works in London as a freelance illustrator. He works in predominately in coloured pencil, and has worked for a variety of clients such as Harrods, The New York Times, Shelter and NOBROW. William draws most of his inspiration from looking closely at what's around him, and from a young age has maintained a keen interest in dogs and the outdoors.
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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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Frank Cottrell Boyce
Frank Cottrell Boyce is a British screenwriter, novelist and occasional actor.
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In addition to original scripts, Cottrell Boyce has also adapted novels for the screen and written children's fiction, winning the 2004 Carnegie Medal for his debut, Millions, based on his own screenplay for the film of the same name.
His novel Framed was shortlisted for the Whitbread Book of the Year as well as the Carnegie Medal.
He adapted the novel into a screenplay for a 2009 BBC television film. His 2009 novel Cosmic has also been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.
He is married and the father of seven children. -
Rachael King
Rachael King lives in a cold rambling villa in Christchurch, New Zealand. Her first novel, The Sound of Butterflies, won the New Zealand Society of Authors Hubert Church award for Best First Book of Fiction at New Zealand Book Awards. It was published in eight languages other than English. Her second novel, Magpie Hall was published in 2009, and her third, a novel for children called Red Rocks, won the 2013 LIANZA Esther Glen Medal for Junior Fiction and was adapted for television (as Secrets at Red Rocks) in 2025. The Grimmelings was published in 2024 by Allen & Unwin in Australia and New Zealand, and by Guppy Books in the UK, and Margaret K. McElderry in the US in 2025. Violet and the Velvets is her new series, published in 2025.
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Alexander Armstrong
An English actor, television and radio presenter, and singer, best known as one half of the comedy duo Armstrong and Miller and as host of the BBC TV game show Pointless.
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Dan Smith
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Pádraig Kenny
Pádraig Kenny is an Irish writer who hails from Newbridge in County Kildare.
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His debut novel Tin was published in 2018 and was Waterstones Children’s Book of the Month. It has been nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal and several other awards.
His second novel Pog was published in April 2019 and was Independent Bookseller's Book of the Month.
His third novel The Monsters of Rookhaven was published in September 2020 by Pan Macmillan. It won the Honour Award for Fiction in the 2021 KPMG Children's Books Ireland awards and was Waterstones Children's Book of the Month in October 2021, and has been nominated for the Carnegie Medal. It has also been optioned by Dream Logic Studios with the intention of adapting it into an animated movie. The sequ -
Morris Gleitzman
Morris began his writing career as a screenwriter, and wrote his first children's novel in 1985. His brilliantly comic style has endeared him to children and adults alike, and he is now one of Australia's most successful authors, both internationally and at home. He was born in England in 1953 and emigrated to Australia in 1969 so he could escape from school and become a Very Famous Writer.
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Before realising that dream, he had a colourful career as paperboy, bottle-shop shelf-stacker, department store Santa Claus, frozen chicken defroster, fashion-design assistant and sugar-mill employee. In between he managed to gain a degree in Professional Writing at the Canberra College of Advanced Education. Later he became sole writer for three award-wi -
Marie Dorléans
Marie Dorléans studied at the School of Decorative Arts in Strasbourg, France. Since her graduation in 2010, she has created children's book as both author and illustrator. The Night Walk won the Landerneau Children's Book Prize, and was shortlisted for the Prix Sorcières. Marie Dorléans breathes poetry and delicacy into her stories with realistic, carefully observed illustrations.
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Mel Darbon
Mel Darbon spent a large part of her childhood inventing stories to keep her autistic brother happy on car journeys. She won’t mention the time spent with him standing by level crossings waiting for the InterCity 125 to go past as she wouldn’t want to be labelled a train spotter.
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Life took her in many different directions working as a theatre designer, a freelance artist, teaching young adults with learning disabilities and running creative workshops for teenage mums, young offenders and toddlers (though not all together).
Mel now writes young adult novels and is a recent graduate of Bath Spa’s MA in Writing For Young People, where she found a channel to give voice to young people who otherwise might not be heard. -
Polly Ho-Yen
Polly Ho-Yen was born in Northampton and brought up in Buckinghamshire. She studied English at Birmingham University before working in publishing for several years.
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Her first novel, Boy in the Tower, published in July 2014 by Random House Children's Publishers, was nominated for the Carnegie Medal and shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Award and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize. Her second novel Where Monsters Lie was published in 2016 and her third novel, Fly Me Home, was published in 2017. Both of these novels were also nominated for the Carnegie Medal.
She now writes full-time and lives in Bristol with her husband. -
Victoria Williamson
A lifelong storyteller and daydreamer, Victoria Williamson is an author and teacher who has lived and worked in Africa, China, America and the UK.
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Victoria grew up in Kirkintilloch, north Glasgow, surrounded by hills on the edge of a forest estate where many of her early ghost stories and fantasy tales were born amid the magical trees and spooky old ruined buildings.
After studying Physics at the University of Glasgow, she set out on her own real life adventures, which included teaching Maths and Science in Cameroon, training teachers in Malawi, teaching English in China and working with children with special needs in the UK.
A qualified primary school teacher with a degree in Mandarin Chinese from Yunnan University and a Master’s degree in Sp -
Meg Grehan
Meg Grehan is a young writer hiding away in Donegal in the northwest of Ireland, with a very ginger girlfriend, an even more ginger dog and an undisclosed number of cats (none of whom is ginger).
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Her first book The Space Between won the Eilis Dillon Award at the 2017 Children’s Books Ireland Awards. The Deepest Breath won the Judges Special Award at the 2020 KPMG Children's Books Ireland Awards. It was also shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Award 2020. -
Frida Nilsson
Frida Nilsson (born 1979) is a Swedish children’s writer whose first book was published in 2004. She has won numerous international shortlistings and prizes, including the August Prize, the German Youth Literature Prize, Expressens Heffaklump and the Astrid Lindgren Prize. She was chosen as one of the best emerging writers in Europe under 39. Nilsson’s writing is characterised by playfulness and sincerity. She has been compared to Roald Dahl and Barbro Lindgren.
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Nadine Aisha Jassat
Nadine Aisha Jassat is the author of poetry collection Let Me Tell You This, described by Nikita Gill (The Girl and The Goddess) as 'beautifully written, immense and full of passion'. She is the author of two middle-grade mystery novels in verse: The Stories Grandma Forgot (And How I Found Them) described by Sophie Anderson (The House With Chicken Legs) as ‘one of those books that truly makes the world a better place,' and The Hidden Story of Estie Noor, described by Maisie Chan (Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths) as a ‘warm hug of a book', where 'finding the power of telling your own story is central to this joyful tale of kindness and community.’
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Nadine has taught and performed internationally and across media, including BBC Scotland’s The Big -
Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock
Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock was born and raised in Alaska. She worked many years fishing commercially with her family and as a reporter for Alaska Public Radio stations around the state. She was also the host and producer of “Independent Native News,” a daily newscast produced in Fairbanks, focusing on Alaska Natives, American Indians, and Canada’s First Nations. Her writing is inspired by her family’s four generations in Alaska.
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Sandi Toksvig
Danish/British writer, presenter, comedian, actress and producer on British radio and television. She currently presents The News Quiz on BBC Radio 4 and 1001 Things You Should Know on Channel 4. In October 2012 she succeeded Sheila Hancock as Chancellor of the University of Portsmouth.
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Robert Swindells
Robert Swindells was born in Bradford in 1939, the eldest of five children. He left the local Secondary Modern School at fifteen to work as a copy holder on the local newspaper. At seventeen he enlisted in the RAF and served for three years, two in Germany. On being discharged he worked as a clerk, engineer and printer until 1969 when he entered college to train as a teacher having obtained five 'O' levels at night-school. His first book 'When Darkness Comes' was written as a college thesis and published by Hodder and Stoughton in 1972. In 1980 he gave up teaching to write full time. He likes travelling and visits many schools each year, talking and reading stories to children. He is the secutatry of his local Peace Movement group. Brother
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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.
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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 -
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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Catherine Johnson
Catherine Johnson is a British author and screenwriter known for her young adult fiction and work in film, television and radio. Born in London to a Jamaican father and Welsh mother, she studied film at St Martin's School of Art before publishing her debut novel, The Last Welsh Summer (1993). She has since written around 20 novels, including works on Arctic explorer Matthew Henson, and won the 2019 Little Rebels Award for Freedom. Her historical novel Sawbones (2013) earned multiple shortlistings and the Young Quills Award. Johnson co-wrote the screenplay for Bullet Boy (2004) with Saul Dibb, and has served as Royal Literary Fund Fellow, Writer in Residence at Holloway Prison, and judge for the Jhalak Prize. In 2019, she was elected a Fel
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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. -
Paddy Donnelly
Paddy Donnelly is an Irish author and illustrator of picture books. Now living in Belgium, he works in a range of illustration styles and was shortlisted for the World Illustration Awards in 2018 and the KPMG Children's Books Ireland Awards in 2020. He wishes Pluto was still a planet.
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Claire Hatcher-Smith
Claire is a speech and language therapist, with a masters in special education.
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Originally from the UK, she now lives surrounded by sea on Vancouver Island, with her husband, their son and a Korean rescue dog. Neurodivergent herself, when she isn't writing, Claire runs peer-support groups for autistic tweens and teens.