The award-winning, best-selling author

Illustrator Tamsin Rosewell and I celebrated the new paperback edition of The Seamaiden’s Odyssey at a special event in the Cartoon Museum in London, 13 March 2025. We talked about the special collaboration between author and illustrator. As you see we’re surrounded there by Tamsin’s lovely artwork for the novel. Please go to the Seamaiden’s Odyssey page to find out more about the inspiration for my story, and how Tamsin set about illustrating it.

Virtual school visits

Welcome to a new school year!

As some of you know, I frequently visit schools and universities all over the world by the magic of Zoom, and I’m very pleased to say that I’ll be continuing to do so this coming school year – in fact my first virtual visit of 2025 was on the second day of this term!

The way it works is that the school or college hosts the event. I spend about 40 minutes with the students, usually talking about the book they’ve been studying in class, my inspiration for it, answering questions and sometimes sharing some of the students’ own work. It’s always a lovely way to share ideas, and it’s wonderful to see how enthusiastic the children and teachers are.

I don’t charge a fee, but I do ask schools to buy copies of any of my books, from whatever source. I’m happy to make suggestions, and I also ask schools to let me know which books they’ve selected, out of interest.

Last year was very busy, and I was happy to talk about any of my books, especially ones that are currently read a lot in schools. Street Child, Treason, Children of Winter , Walking on Air, Blue John and my newest book, The Seamaiden’s Odyssey were all popular choices last term.

To make a booking, please go to my contact page.