Authors in the Spotlight

Vivian French is a much-loved author who has written more than 300 books for children. In 2016, she received an MBE for services to literature, literacy, illustration and the arts.

Marcus Sedgwick was born in Kent but now lives in the south of France. He has written over 50 books, including books for adults, young adults, and younger children, and of all types, from picture books to non-fiction, comics to graphic novels. He has won many awards for his work over the last quarter of a century.

Petr Horácek graduated as a Master of Fine Art in 1994. The first books ‘Strawberries are Red’ and ‘What is Black and White?’ were published in 2001 and he received the Books For Children Newcomer Award in the same year. Since then, Petr has written and illustrated many books for children and won awards for his books in Britain, USA and Holland. His new book, The Perfect Present was published on 25th August 2022.

Nicola Skinner worked as a copywriter and journalist for the likes of the Guardian and the Pool before being inspired to write for young readers.

Jackie Morris is the bestselling author and illustrator, photographer and painter who created the international bestseller, The Lost Words, winner of the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal in 2019, with Robert Macfarlane.

Following a medical degree, Lissa Evans changed careers to become a comedy producer for radio and TV. Her children’s novels have been shortlisted for the Costa Children’s Book Award, Carnegie Medal, and Branford Boase Award.

Chrissie Sains is the author of The Alien in the Jam Factory and The Treasure Under the Jam Factory. Chrissie has a background in marketing and events but now writes full time and is a graduate of the Golden Egg Academy and a member of SCBWI.

Neill Cameron is an award-winning author and cartoonist. He is the creator of several comic books, including the Mega Robo Bros series and How to Make Awesome Comics.

Helen Cooper is an author and illustrator whose books have won lots of awards including the Kate Greenaway Medal – twice. She also writes and illustrates Chapter Books and sometimes writes Picture Books in collaboration with other illustrators.

Larraine Harrison writes books for both teachers and children. She likes to involve children in the writing process by asking them to review her drafts and has managed to persuade her grandchildren to be the models on her book covers.

Shereen Malherbe is a British Palestinian author of novels and children’s books. After travelling throughout the Middle East, Shereen now resides in the UK with her husband and four children.

Laura Mucha is an award-winning poet and author whose work has been featured on TV, radio and public transport, as well as in
hospitals, hospices, prisons, magazines and books around the world.

Lucy Strange is a bestselling children’s author. Her novels for booklovers aged 9+ include The Secret of Nightingale Wood, Our Castle by the Sea and The Ghost of Gosswater.

Marcia Williams is famous for her retellings of classic stories. Marcia’s humorous comic-strip illustrations are hugely popular all over the world.

Rob Biddulph is a bestselling and multi award-winning author/illustrator whose picture books include Blown Away, Odd Dog Out, Kevin and Show and Tell.

Lucy Courtenay has written over 100 books, both as herself and as a team writer on series such as Beast Quest.

Sue Cheung is an award-winning British-Chinese author/illustrator of books for children and young adults.

Jenny McLachlan writes funny, accessible books that children love. She’s currently writing the third book in the popular Land of Roar series.

Frank Cottrell Boyce is an award-winning author and screenwriter. Millions, his debut children’s novel, won the CILIP Carnegie Medal.

Hilary McKay is the award winner author of The Skylarks War, The Exiles and the Smarties among many other critically acclaimed titles.

Chris Callaghan is the author of the award winning story ‘The Great Chocoplot’ and his brand new series of books ‘Shinoy and the Chaos Crew’.

Piers Torday is the author of the award-winning trilogy The Last Wild and many other children’s books.

Sue Hardy-Dawson is an award winning poet and an illustrator.

Vashti Hardy is a writer of children’s books. Vashti has a special interest in children’s writing, especially free-writing.

Elen Caldecott is a children’s author and was highly commended in the PFD Prize for Most Promising Writer for young people.

Catherine Fisher is an acclaimed poet and author of children’s fiction.

Liz Brownlee is a poet and children’s poet with work in over 80 children’s poetry anthologies in the UK.

Chitra Soundar is an internationally published, award-winning author of over 40 books for children

Sally Gardner is a multi award-winning novelist who has sold over 2 million books in the UK.

John Dougherty is a former teacher and now author of the Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face series, the Zeus stories and many more.

Karl Nova’s debut book “Rhythm And Poetry” was declared winner of the CLPE, CLiPPA 2018 Poetry award

Tom Palmer is the author of 50 books, most of them for children. Armistice Runner, won the UK Children’s Book Award in 2019.

Maz Evans debut novel Who Let the Gods Out was selected as the Waterstone’s Children’s Book of the Month

Lisa’s first novel, The Goldfish Boy, was one of the biggest selling debut books of 2017

Jo Cotterill is a multi-award-winning author with over forty books for children, including new novel ‘Jelly’

The award winning author of over 50 books for children, including the much loved Mixed Up Fairy Tales.