When The World Was Ours by Liz Kessler is out 21st January 2021 (Hardback, Simon & Schuster Childrens Books) For at least the last decade, I’ve had a growing desire to write a book inspired by an event that took place in 1934. A moment on a Danube Steamer in Vienna – where my dad, […]

S.A. Patrick is the author of the hugely popular A Darkness of Dragons and it’s newly published sequel, A Vanishing of Griffins. Usborne are the lucky publisher to send a twist on the tale of the Pied Piper into the world. With the perfect blend of adventure, myth and magic, these books will delight and […]

Guest Post by Cynthia Murphy If I could travel back in time and speak to ten-year-old me, I’d tell her about how twenty-six years in the future, our love of Point Horror would kickstart a young adult writing career.  She would ask me what took so long.  I have a wonderfully clear memory of being […]

Guest Post by Paul Coomey I’m best at writing in the morning, before my head gets filled with distractions like music and conversations and the internet and reading. I have another job (as an Art Director at Wonderbly, working on picture books) so when I was writing Stick Boy I got up while it was […]

Guest Post by P.G.Bell Parents tend to get a raw deal in children’s literature. At best, they’re hapless stick-in-the-muds who lack the ambition and imagination of our young heroes, and are quickly outgrown. More typically, they’re dead and buried long before the story even starts. There’s a very good reason for this, of course – […]

This delightful and diverse series of books for younger readers is simply lovely. We loved reading the series and were thrilled to pose a set of questions to both the author, Swapna Reddy and illustrator, Binny Talib. There is so much in the media about the importance of all children being able to see themselves […]

A Special Christmas Guest Post from Benji Davies The holly and the ivy. Mistletoe and Wine. Dasher and Dancer. Like Christmas and books they go together. One of my strongest memories of the festive period and a family tradition in my childhood home was the reading of a special book on Christmas eve. My two […]

Blog post by Lawrence Schimel “A translator is a reader who shares his enthusiasm for a book with readers in another language and culture” It was a great surprise for both myself, as translator, and the poet Karmelo C. Iribarren, when we first learned that POEMS THE WIND BLEW IN had been shortlisted for the […]

By Zaro Weil, Winner of the 2020 Clippa Poetry Prize Arriving at the windy Bologna Book Fair in March 2018, I stood smiling under the fluttering coloured banners. What a miracle to be part of this world. My second poetry book had just been published. Firecrackers. I was there to help my publisher, Troika, promote […]

The story of Tell Tail came about after spending a bit of time with my neighbour’s exuberant Staffordshire bull terrier, Stanley. I’ve always loved dogs and Stanley is a dog after my own heart – he really is the maddest, most carefree beast I’ve ever encountered. I was thinking how some dogs are bred for […]