Category Archives: Blog

The Double Life of Daisy Hemmings (and other film stars)

Posted on July 7, 2022 by Joanna Nadin

All writers hope for film or TV deal. If any of us say we don’t, we’re lying. Aside from the (often actually quite small) financial boost, it’s a massive pat on the back, and a kick to see characters you’ve … Continue reading →

Posted in 1980s, Blog, creative writing, Fiction, love, romance, women's fiction | Tagged Ben Wishaw, Cornwall, Dominic West, du Maurier, Fowey, Joanna Nadin | 1 Comment

World Book Day is going to be LITERALLY brilliant!

Posted on September 22, 2021 by Joanna Nadin

Last February, I had the kind of email a writer dreams of; the kind that comes from their lovely editor and begins with ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ in shouty capitals. It was telling me that Rikin and I had been chosen to be … Continue reading →

Posted in Blog, creative writing, Events, Fiction, middle grade, Reading, Uncategorized | Tagged Joanna Nadin, Matt Lucas, MG, Michael Morpurgo, middle grade, Nadia Shireen, Simon Farnaby, WBD, World Book Day, Worst Class | Leave a comment

Head in all the books

Posted on June 26, 2019 by Joanna Nadin

I read a lot. A LOT. About sixty so far this year though it feels more like eleventy billion. Some for work, some for pleasure, some for both. Some I’ve put down after two pages because CLUNKY. Some because the … Continue reading →

Posted in 1970s, 1980s, Blog, creative writing, Fiction, women's fiction, YA | Tagged Cormoran Strike, Eimear McBride, Emma Glass, Jess Kidd, Sarah Crossan, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Tracey Thorn, William Sutcliffe | Leave a comment

Here’s One I Made Earlier

Posted on November 4, 2018 by Joanna Nadin

As a child, I was a ‘keener’. A ‘swot’. A ‘geek’. Way before geeks were chic or had rows with nerds over which was which. And yet my ambition – to somehow be Queen of Facts, and win many spectacular … Continue reading →

Posted in 1980s, Blog, creative writing, Fiction, Reading | Tagged Blue Peter, Clare Elsom, Flying Fergus, Sir Chris Hoy | Leave a comment

(Pigeon) seeds of a story

Posted on July 12, 2018 by Joanna Nadin

It began with a name, as it so often does for me: The Audacious Birdy Jones. But who she was, what she looked like, what her story was were blurry and inchoate, still lost somewhere in the soup of story … Continue reading →

Posted in Blog, creative writing, Fiction, middle grade, Reading | Tagged Billy Bremner, Edinburgh, Leeds, Leeds United, pigeons | Leave a comment

CBBC’s Joe All Alone and the truth about child poverty

Posted on April 2, 2018 by Joanna Nadin

Joe All Alone is a book (and, now, BBC TV series) about friendship. It’s a book about family, and what constitutes that today. It’s a book about bullying. It’s a book about difference and acceptance. But beneath all that, it’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Blog, Fiction, middle grade, Teen, Uncategorized, YA | Tagged CBBC, child poverty, Daniel Frogson, Home Alone, Joanna Nadin, Joe All Alone, Joe Sims, Vas Blackwood | Leave a comment

A face for radio

Posted on January 31, 2018 by Joanna Nadin

Many years ago, when I still thought I’d lead a glamorous life in the meejah, I read radio news for a living. And it’s a medium I adore – the focus on words, the invisibility of it, so that, when … Continue reading →

Posted in Blog, Fiction, Uncategorized | Tagged BBC London, Essex, Joanna Nadin, Mantle Books, Pan Macmillan, Radio 1, Saffron Walden, swearing, The Queen of Bloody Everything | Leave a comment

The Queen of Bloody Everything (including the Indy’s and Red’s Top 10)

Posted on January 3, 2018 by Joanna Nadin

I know the rule: don’t read reviews, good or bad. That way you don’t risk heartbreak, or ranting mintily on Twitter. But that way you don’t get the ridiculous overexcitement that comes with this: making both Red magazine’s and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Blog, Fiction | Tagged daughters, Joanna Nadin, mothers, Saffron Walden, The Queen of Bloody Everything, women's fiction | 2 Comments

Joe in the post

Posted on December 4, 2017 by Joanna Nadin

In the run-up to Christmas, opening the post is always accompanied by a little frisson of anticipation, invariably dampened when I find it is only catalogues or credit statements or a card from someone I have never met addressed to … Continue reading →

Posted in Blog, middle grade, Reading, Teen, YA | Tagged Banijay, CBBC, Daniel Frogson, Joe All Alone, Joe Sims, tv drama, Vas Blackwood, Zodiak | Leave a comment

The Carnegie Feeling

Posted on November 6, 2017 by Joanna Nadin

I have never been one of life’s winners when it comes to sport, barely even scraping third in the 1979 St Mary’s Primary sports day yoghurt-pot-and-umbrella race (actual race, involving running wildly around the field with an empty Ski pot … Continue reading →