While Nick Manns was growing up, his father was in the RAF. Every two years his family would pack up and move to another RAF base - but one of the things that stayed firm during his childhood were the stories he could fetch from the local library. Even in some remote desert outpost, there was alway a book to transport him to other worlds. He has written stories and poems every since. Formerly a secondary school English teacher, he is now a curriculum coordinator for Leicester College. A published writer of books about teaching, CONTROL-SHIFT was his debut novel, shortlisted for the North-East Book Award and the Branford Boase Award, longlisted for the Carnegie Medal, and nominated for the Stockton Award.