I am currently adapting My Second Life into a TV Series. It’s been a fascinating process. The real challenge has been how to make Ana’s internal first-person voice in the book translate into something more outward facing and visual for the screen. It’s been exciting...

My Secret Lies With You began with a place. My family were lucky enough to have friends who owned a house on an estuary on the outskirts of the Snowdonia National Park. Our families (two mums, four kids) spent most of our school holidays from the ages of 7 to 18 piled...

Last week I went back to my notebooks. There were some specific notes I had made when I started writing my story that I wanted to find to help me with my current rewrites. When I eventually came across the scribbles I was looking for I was surprised to see that they...

What I Couldn’t Tell You came joint third place in the first Ealing Teen Read Award with Alex Scarrow’s Re-Made. What joy! Huge congratulations to Ruta Sepetys for second place and the awesome Holly Bourne for coming first! What I Couldn’t Tell You also made it onto...

A big thank you to Faye Rogers for running such a stonking Blog Tour for What I Couldn’t Tell You in August 2016, and to all the lovely bloggers who supported me and the book by taking part. Do go and look at the Tour Wrap Up on Faye’s website if you missed any...

What I Couldn’t Tell You was published in May 2016, and the story centres around a 15 year old girl called Tessie, who is selectively mute. The chances are you will not have heard of Selective Mutism, so I wanted to put some words down about it here. “Selective Mutism...

Book Launch 5 May 2016 I had such a wonderful evening at Daunts Bookshop in Holland Park last night with so many friends and family to celebrate publication of What I Couldn’t Tell You. It feels lovely today to remember the evening and to know that the book is now...

Words to describe how it feels to see your book for the first time? Awe, wonder, joy, a little fear, more joy, more awe… and I’m smiling… I absolutely cannot stop smiling, inside and out. The first sight of your book is when it arrives by the magic of post through...

There’s something very surreal about writing a book. These characters, their stories, come entirely out of your head. They are nudged into existence by the outside world of course, but essentially they develop and grow in your mind and come out onto the page with...

MY SECOND LIFE is going to be published in the US on 19 January 2016. When I type that I still feel like I have to pinch myself… And here is the US cover with the UK one below…

I’m delighted that I’m going to be a part of YA Shot this October. If you don’t know about YA Shot, it is a one-day Young Adult and Middle Grade ‘festival’ taking place in Uxbridge on Wednesday 28 October 2015. There will be over 71 authors involved in a programme of...

I was sent this brilliant poem by Keira-Joan Alexander from Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School in London, inspired by Emma’s character in My Second Life. I think it’s just brilliant so wanted to share it here. A huge thank you to Keira-Joan for agreeing that I can put...

SO delighted that My Second Life has been nominated for the North East Teenage Book Award 2014, and in such completely amazing company. You can see all the books on the shortlist and find out more about the authors here… Edinburgh was a ball! Such a beautiful city,...

I am delighted to be going to the Edinburgh International Book Festival at the end of the month. You can access all you need to know about the Festival here and about the event I’ll be doing with the lovely Alexia Casale, who wrote the brilliant The Bone Dragon . We...

In the month that My Second Life was published I was lucky enough to write some guest posts for these brilliant book bloggers. A huge THANK YOU to the following bloggers for having me. If you don’t already follow these blogs then you should. Go see! The Bibliomaniac...

“Keep reading great things, memorise what you read, be hard on yourself. In other words, it requires the dedication of a Samurai. Set yourself high standards.” Edna O’Brien at Hay Festival 2013 I read this on Twitter last year and quickly noted it down. There was...

I’ve been inspired by other authors who have used Pinterest to create a mood board for their books, and have spent the last week trawling for images that might work for My Second Life. Once I started searching – thinking mainly about the various images in the book,...

Wednesday 16 April was a big day for My Second Life. The book went to press and the opening chapter went on line as part of Lucy Powrie’s amazing UKYA April Extravaganza. If you don’t know about Lucy and UKYA you must. Go and visit her website www.ukya.co.uk and...

I wrote  this blog post earlier in the year for The Faber Academy News and Features page talking about my experiences of having been a Literary Agent and now being a writer. It may be of interest to any aspiring writers among you. SITTING ON BOTH SIDES OF THE DESK I...