Category Archives: creative writing

Welcome to 4b: The Worst Class in the World

Posted on May 14, 2020 by

Schools might be closed for most of us, but for one long-suffering teacher, Mr Nidgett, the classroom is packed with shenanigans. That’s because he’s in charge of 4b, who are LITERALLY The Worst Class in the World, at least according … Continue reading →

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A Penny (Dreadful) a day…

Posted on March 19, 2020 by

Isn’t the world weird? The prospect of being holed up in our homes is daunting, especially for those of us with kids. Mine’s grown now, but many years ago, she was a menace, who would have destroyed the house in … Continue reading →

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‘Hull, Nadin!’

Posted on December 3, 2019 by

Let us set aside for a moment that the University of Hull’s barrel of ‘notable alumni’ was small to start with, and is now very much scraped, and appreciate that I have wanted to do this for more years than … Continue reading →

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And another one…

Posted on November 26, 2019 by

2020-2021 is a busy book year for me, but this one is a biggie. Second adult novel, set in Essex in 1981 and featuring Grifter bikes, Charles and Di, Panda Pops, a Welsh Elvis impersonator, a fake Marc Bolan, and … Continue reading →

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All cheer for Alan

Posted on November 25, 2019 by

Every so often, a commission gets you thinking. And thinking. And thinking some more. But learning binary? Caesar shifts? How to operate an Enigma machine? This biography of Alan Turing was one of my biggest challenges and delights to write … Continue reading →

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Head in all the books

Posted on June 26, 2019 by

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 →

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My BAFTA-Winning Boy

Posted on November 26, 2018 by

This is how it started. A small boy I’d glimpsed on a street in Peckham, his sleeping bag on his back like a nylon snail. From that came pages of notes about a boy called Tom, who eventually turned into … Continue reading →

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Here’s One I Made Earlier

Posted on November 4, 2018 by

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 →

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We are BAFTA-nominated… and breathe

Posted on October 22, 2018 by

A couple of days ago, I found out that the CBBC adaptation of Joe All Alone was shortlisted for the Royal Television Society Awards for Best Children’s Drama. A couple of minutes ago, I found out it’s now nominated for … Continue reading →

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(Pigeon) seeds of a story

Posted on July 12, 2018 by

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 →

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