A former broadcast journalist and special adviser to the Prime Minister (not this one), since leaving politics she has written more than 90 books for children and adults, including the UK bestselling The Worst Class in the World series, the Flying Fergus series with Sir Chris Hoy, and the Carnegie-nominated Joe All Alone, which is now a BAFTA-winning and Emmy-nominated BBC Drama. She's been a World Book Day author, a Blue Peter book of the month and Radio 4 and the i magazine Book of the Year, won the Fantastic Book Award and the Highland Book Prize, been nominated for the Carnegie Medal five times, and been shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, Queen of Teen and the Big Book Awards among many others, and published across multiple territories. She has a PhD in Creative Writing and is a Senior Lecturer in the subject at University of Bristol, as well as teaching for the Arvon Foundation.
