As well as being a huge football fan, Tom Palmer has an international reputation in reader development. He is a coordinator of the Reading Partners consortium, works with The Reading Agency, Booktrust and the National Literacy Trust, and has been the official writer for the Premier League Reading Stars scheme for five years. He also…
William Nicholson is a screenwriter, playwright and novelist. His novel for older children, The Wind Singer, won the Smarties Prize Gold Award on publication in 2000, and the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award in 2001. Its sequel, Slaves of the Mastery , was published in 2001, and the final volume in the trilogy, Firesong , in 2002. The…
Grace Nichols was born and educated in Guyana. Since moving to Britain in 1977 and winning the 1983 Commonwealth Poetry Prize for her first collection; ‘ I is a Long-Memoried Woman’ she has written many books for both adults and children including a novel, ‘Whole Of A Morning Sky’. Her adult poetry collections include her…
Linda Newbery began writing as a young adult author but has now broadened her range to encompass all ages. Now a full-time writer, she published her first novel Run with the Hare in 1988, while still working as an English teacher in a comprehensive school. Linda won the Costa Children’s Book Award in 2006. Where…
Beverley Naidoo was born in South Africa but moved to the United Kingdom in 1965. As a child Beverley always loved stories but only started writing when her own children were growing up. Her first book, Journey to Jo’burg, won The Other Award in Britain. It opened a window onto children’s struggles under apartheid. In South…
Miriam Moss is an award winning author of over 75 books, including 30 picture books, poetry and short stories, with wide experience of working creatively with children and adults throughout the UK and abroad. Where does your inspiration come from? It comes out of the blue – from anything I see, think, feel, touch, smell,…
Brian Moses is an English poet. He mainly writes for children, has over 200 published works and is a well known as a children’s poet. His poetry books and anthologies for Macmillan have sold in excess of 1 million copies. What does poetry mean to you? Poetry touches every emotion. It can make you smile,…
Tony Mitton is a widely anthologized and popular children’s poet, as well as a teacher and performing poet. What does poetry mean to you? Poetry means a lot to me and I’ve had a relationship with it since I was a child. Since the age of around 9 I’ve read it and written it. Sometimes…
Cliff McNish is a writer of fantasy for young adults. His books include The Doomspell Trilogy and the Silver Sequence trilogy. When you start to write a book, do you know how it will end? I always like to have a good idea that I have an ending that seems worth heading towards. Without the security of that, there’s…