About me

I was born in South Wales, the youngest of four children, two boys and two girls, but now I live at the very tip of England, in West Cornwall, as far as you can go. I’m married with four daughters but I have two sons-in-law and two little grandsons as well, which evens up the gender imbalance in our family quite a bit. Plus, I have a brand-new baby granddaughter.

I used to teach English and Drama but now I am a full-time writer which is a lot easier! I do miss the fun of the classroom though, so I love to do festivals and visits to schools and libraries as I can get to talk to my readers and find out what they think.

My favourite things in life are my family, my friends, being out in the fresh air, walking on Cornish beaches and cliff-sides, visiting Australia where I lived for a while, swimming, cycling, reading, the theatre… oh, and writing, of course.

Here we are together, the whole family. Yes we do spend a lot of time on the beach, even in winter.

Actually, there is more of the family now. Here are my gorgeous grandsons, Vinny and Zac, who provide me with lots of inspiration, and my beautiful granddaughter, Ella.

I suppose it’s obvious I’m going to write about teenage girls when I had four of my own. Though I do write about boys too! In my World Book Day Book, out this March, called Walking the Walls, I found myself writing from a boy’s point of view for the first time. Felix had played a minor role in one of my other novels, but I felt he deserved a bigger part this time. Don’t forget to pick up your World Book Day Voucher from school and get Walking the Walls free!

I love being a writer because I never quite know what my characters are going to do next. I love the unpredictability of it, and the way they emerge from my imagination and take over the page. With each new book, I set out on a new adventure with a new set of friends and family. I hope you’ll enjoy reading about them as much as I enjoy writing about them.