About Me
I was born in Barrow-in-Furness (top shipyard), grew up in Carlisle (fab castle), went to college in Brighton (smashing seaside) and lived in Hove (actually) for a while, before sailing for Kinsale, Co Cork (totally cracking craic), popping back to Hove and then moving to the New Forest (not that new) with my husband and daughter. And never at any point have I lived more than ten miles from the sea.
I’ve worked in children’s publishing since 1992, when text was pasted onto acetate and it was the done thing to set your hair on fire (three times) at the office Christmas party. I was an editor first of all, working on illustrated non-fiction and learning fun facts like how long it would take to walk to the moon (nine years) and how to spell palaeontology (more useful than you’d think). Next, I commissioned fiction titles, editing picture books, storybooks and novels. And then I got the chance to write my own books, which is quite the best job ever.
My specialist subjects are Jane Eyre, ice skating, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, lightning, fairies, Roald Dahl, Christmas, dolphins, Florence Nightingale and very bad cracker jokes. Oh, and chocolate.
My favourite colour is navy blue.