Category Archives: Teen

A Calamity of Mannerings heading your way

Posted on February 10, 2023 by Joanna Nadin

Take a peek into the diary of Panth (never enquire as to her given name), a young woman knocking on the gilded door of adult life and high society. But kicking up one’s heels at the Cafe de Paris does … Continue reading →

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Sense and Sensibility (with bells on)

Posted on October 1, 2020 by Joanna Nadin

Firstly, a confession: until I came to be offered the opportunity to rewrite Sense and Sensibility, the closest I had come to Jane Austen was TV reruns of Mr Darcy emerging wet from a lake, and a reluctant trudge around … Continue reading →

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My BAFTA-Winning Boy

Posted on November 26, 2018 by Joanna Nadin

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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BAFTA, baby!

Posted on April 15, 2018 by Joanna Nadin

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 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 →

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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 →

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The making of a mixtape…

Posted on September 12, 2017 by Joanna Nadin

Rob has it right in High Fidelity: “The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention. Then … Continue reading →

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Everybody Hurts – a story of love (and ping pong)

Posted on August 3, 2017 by Joanna Nadin

It began, as so many great love stories do, with an argument. This time, however, there was no prom, or even eyes meeting across a bar; rather boy (Anthony McGowan) met girl (me) on Meg Rosoff’s blog, shouting about Jane … Continue reading →

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Joe All Alone on CBBC

Posted on July 30, 2017 by Joanna Nadin

About three years ago, before Joe was even published, I got a phonecall from a TV producer who had got hold of the manuscript, read it in one sitting, and was determined to persuade CBBC to make it into a … Continue reading →

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Home alone?

Posted on October 11, 2015 by Joanna Nadin

I’m at the UKMG extravaganza next Saturday in Nottingham, celebrating books for 9-12 year olds, including my own Joe All Alone. But ahead of that, I’m getting shouty rather than celebratory. This went up over on Pewter Wolf’s blog today, … Continue reading →

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