We were in Itacare in Brazil when I had an email from my agent telling me that Quercus Children’s Books wanted to publish Sammy Feral’s Diaries of Weird.Īfter we returned home from our adventure of a lifetime, we moved back to London and both got jobs. I wrote in beach-side cafes, jungle huts, tropical islands, dusty cities and ancient ruins. Some friends of mine had kindly leant me a small laptop to travel with, and it was during my travels that I wrote The Blue Lady.

Animals that people believe don’t actually exist – animals like werewolves, phoenixes, death worms and yetis.Īfter my first Sammy Feral book was written, I decided to quit my job in Bath, leave my lovely flat and my friends behind and board a plane with my boyfriend, Luke, to travel the lengths of the Americas. Except I didn’t want to write about normal zoo animals like lions and tigers and bears, I wanted to write about weird animals. By this point I’d had an idea for a book about a boy whose family owned a zoo. And they agreed to help me get some of my other stories published. It was at Parragon that the idea for Will Solvit came about… and the kind people at Parragon let me write my crazy idea down… and it became a book…and that book became a series…Īs Will Solvit was launched into the world, I was put in touch with the lovely people at the Miles Stott Children’s Literary Agency. I then moved to the beautiful city of Bath to work for Parragon Books as a writer and editor on their Disney team. So I moved back to London and started working in publishing. That’s what I had to do with my life, I had to become a writer.Īfter university I headed home – which was now in Canterbury – and pretended to still be a student whilst trying to write stories. “The Northern Lights is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! Philip Pullman has created a masterpiece – if I could write something like that then I’d die happy”. I was at a party telling a friend about a book I’d been reading.

It was around then that I realised I wanted to become a writer. Writers were good at spelling and had neat handwriting.Īfter school I went to Kings College London and did a degree in philosophy – I worked little and played hard, somehow I still passed. It never occurred to me that I could be a writer. I wanted to grow up and be an actress, or a rock star, or maybe both. Throughout school I kept a diary, wrote bad poetry, song lyrics and stories.

Ghost Plane by Eleanor Hawken