Author Archives: Joanna Nadin

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About Joanna Nadin

A former broadcast journalist and special adviser to the prime minister, since leaving politics I’ve written more than 80 books for children and adults, as well as speeches for politicians, and articles for newspapers and magazines like The Guardian, Red and The Amorist. I also lecture in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, and hold a doctorate in young adult literature. I’m a winner of the Fantastic Book Award and the Surrey Book Award, and have been shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, the Booktrust Best Book award and Queen of Teen among others, and twice nominated for the Carnegie Medal, for Everybody Hurts, and for Joe All Alone, which is now a BAFTA-winning and Emmy-nominated BBC TV series. I've also worked with Sir Chris Hoy on the Flying Fergus series and ghost-written Angry Birds under another name. I like London, New York, Essex, tea, cake, Marmite, mint imperials, prom dresses, pubs, that bit in the West Wing where Donna tells Josh she wouldn’t stop for a red light if he was in an accident, junk shops, crisps, Cornwall, St Custard’s, Portuguese custard tarts, political geeks, pin-up swimsuits, the Regency, high heels, horses, old songs, my Grandma’s fur coat, vinyl, liner notes, the smell of old books, the feel of a velveteen monkey, Guinness, quiffs, putting my hand in a bin of chicken feed, the 1950s, burlesque, automata, fiddles, flaneuring, gigs in fields on warm summer nights, Bath, the bath.

The Lost Boys

In 1992, straight out of uni, my head still full of learning, and brand new in a wide world, I first felt the compulsion to write. Not books back then, but journalism. Specifically New Journalism. I swallowed Tom Wolfe, Ken … Continue reading

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Joanna Nadin is a Record Breaker (potentially)

I have never been a high achiever. Until I started writing (thanks to Penny Dreadful, Solomon Smee and Maisie Morris), the only two things I had won were a Toners hair dye from Jackie magazine in 1982 and the umbrella … Continue reading

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Funny ha ha

In need of a laugh? I certainly am, having spent the morning embroiled in the Francis Report and my own medical disaster i.e. a menace with flu. Then click on this link for my top ten funny reads for 5-8s… … Continue reading

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Let’s hear it for the girls…

As a child, I was never what was (derogatorily) termed a “girly girl”, in other words, dressed in pink frills, with an army of Barbies marching absurd-legged across my bedroom floor. Partly by accident: mine was a childhood of inherited … Continue reading

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Me, Rachel Riley

One of the most-oft asked questions of writers is: “Is the book autobiographical?” Or “Is there any of you in there?” The easy answer is that every book contains a little of its author: these are, after all, words we … Continue reading

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Tis the season to be jolly…

… fa la la la laa etc etc. And normally I am the first one up with the Christmas tree (fake – I have hoovering OCD) and tinsel, and the first one to overdose on Quality Street, cry at the … Continue reading

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The shovel list.

I am a happy person. I am relentlessly optimistic in the face of disappointment. I dance through life with a pair of rose-tinted glasses superglued to my face. I am hopeful to the point of idiocy e.g. when I wake … Continue reading

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The Next Big Thing…

So, I’ve been tagged as part of an internet meme (horrid word. Also odd, as I thought memes were mostly pictures of cats doing amusing things or pseudo-political captions on pictures of sunsets, but I digress…). Last week was Veronique … Continue reading

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Frank

This is me and Frank Cottrell Boyce. That’s right. FRANK COTTRELL BOYCE. You know, who wrote Millions, and Cosmic, not to mention ‘24-Hour Party People’, ‘Brookside’ and oh, a little thing called the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony. I look happy, … Continue reading

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Books are where the wild things are…

This week, or actually last two days as I have barely been able to put it down, I have been reading a story by a girl who was raised by an ogress in a house that contained only six books, … Continue reading

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