Category Archives: creative writing
Head in all the books
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
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My BAFTA-Winning Boy
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
Posted in creative writing, Fiction, middle grade, Teen, YA
Tagged BAFTA, Beryl Richards, CBBC, Daniel Frogson, Joe All Alone, Liani Samuel, Nadine Marsh-Edwards, Zodiak Kids
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We are BAFTA-nominated… and breathe
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
(Pigeon) seeds of a story
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
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Birdy Jones is all alone
Of all the questions I get asked on school visits, there are several perennials: How old are you, Miss? How much do you earn, Miss? Do you know JK Rowling / Jacqueline Wilson / David Walliams / any other much … Continue reading
Posted in creative writing, Fiction, middle grade, Reading
Tagged Joanna Nadin, Joe All Alone, Leeds United, Liz Kessler, MG, Sean Bean, UKMG
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BAFTA, baby!
On Friday, someone asked me how different my life was a decade ago. And other than the Menace being smaller and markedly more menacing, and my home being two roads away, I said it barely was. ten years ago I … Continue reading
Posted in creative writing, Fiction, middle grade, Teen, YA
Tagged BAFTA, Beryl Richards, CBBC, Daniel Frogson, Joe All Alone, Joe Sims, Liani Samuels, Nadine Marsh-Edwards, Vas Blackwood, Zodiak Kids
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First lines and first chapters
Find out how writers from David Almond to Frank Cottrell Boyce to Sue Townsend have grabbed their readers from the off, and kept them turning pages long into the night. And have a go at writing your own first page … Continue reading
Joanna Nadin 