books

In Dec 2008 I finished my second novel, The Granddaughter’s Song, set in contemporary inner London and Bosnia in 1992 and 1941. It’s about music, choices, identity and survival.

Changeling, my first novel, was written after months in development hell on a well-paid tv drama that never reached the screen. When I emerged, the writer Maeve Binchy, a wise woman and a good friend, sent me this e-mail: NOW SIT DOWN AND WRITE WHAT YOU LIKE. So I did, starting with three things - a teenager’s hatred for her dad’s new baby, a motif from folklore, and an Ordinance Survey map of the area in which the book is set.

Writing novels is exhausting, exhilarating and deeply satisfying. I think I’m hooked.

In 2008, Finn’s Thumb and The Riddle, two Irish legends retold for children, were commissioned and published by The O’Brien Press, for which I’ll be writing again in 2009.

My work for children’s radio programmes is represented in BBC, Appletree Press, and Oliver & Boyd spin-off book series.

Fairytales, Myths and Legends was commissioned by Element books in 2000.