About me.

By the time I was eighteen, I’d lived in thirteen different places and gone to ten different schools (one expelled me!). My dad moved us around a lot – not because he was running from the law or anything, he just had really itchy feet. I was always the new kid in class, the one on the outside trying to get in. It wasn’t much fun, but I did get very good at sticking my chin out and faking it. I do that a lot, still.

Maybe I’ve got itchy feet too? I’ve had more than twenty different jobs, from artist’s model to TV presenter to English teacher. It’s been great, but I’ve never enjoyed my work as much as I do now, scribbling away at the next book, visiting schools and working in a library. When I can match a child with the right book, I’ve done my job. Losing yourself in a story might be the best thing in the world.

I’ve always loved writing. Anyone can write, but you need to work hard and believe you can do it. I love shouting about the things I’m passionate about, waving words around in my books, like I do in real life.

I believe in second chances. I was expelled from one school and I dropped out of university the first time around, but I didn’t give up on learning, and in my fifties I became the proud owner of a master’s degree in creative writing for young people.

I think I’m writing books for the teenage rebel still inside me.