About

I’m an award-winning, bestselling author and Artistic Director who creates work for children and young people.

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I’m trying to help kids thrive – especially those who are disengaged, disadvantaged and generally don’t think arts, culture, reading and writing is for them.

It is. I’ll make it so.

I was born and raised in Luton, lived in Brighton, London, Kent and Sheffield but now, I write from Rotterdam on my old ship – Anna Maria was built in 1897.

Before writing books full-time, I had a wide range of jobs including the founding Creative Director at Hopster and I created the Tate Kids website, back in 2007. In 2013, The Bookseller named me as one of their Rising Stars – alongside Hellie Ogden at WME, who is now my agent. It was clearly meant to be.

I was most recently the Artistic Director at Site Gallery, and was on the board of Sheffield Doc/Fest in addition to being a member of BAFTA’s Children’s and Learning and New Talent committees and the Children’s Media Conference advisory board. It was a busy time. I curate Ensemble every year with the London Games Festival. The exhibition highlights Black and Minority Ethnic talent working in the UK games industry. Come see us in Trafalgar Square and other locations across the country.