Category Archives: Fiction

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 →

Posted in 1970s, 1980s, Blog, creative writing, Fiction, women's fiction, YA | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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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(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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Birdy Jones is all alone

Posted on May 26, 2018 by

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 →

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BAFTA, baby!

Posted on April 15, 2018 by

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 →

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

Posted on April 2, 2018 by

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 →

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