I was very lucky to grow up in a home full of books. Lucky too that, though my parents encouraged me to read, they were not at all prescriptive. So I got into the habit of reading widely – and I still do. My childhood favourites included “Peter Pan” (possibly my first brush with pirates!), “The Secret Garden”, “The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe”, “The Phoenix and the Carpet”, “Carrie’s War” and “Charlotte’s Web”. At the same time, I adored the “Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew” mysteries – both in book form and as Saturday teatime TV.

My sister Jenny gave me copies of A. A. Milne, which I treasure to this day. I loved “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” – especially for the names of the chocolate bars (“Whipple-scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight, anyone?) and Roald Dahl’s spot-on descriptions of their crunch. I adored Enid Blyton’s “The Boy Next Door” for its heady sense of adventure, its charismatic American hero Kit and the allure of the houseboat he hides out on! (Anne Fine once told me that it’s one of her fave Blytons too.)

A favourite book series was “The Bagthorpe Saga” by Helen Cresswell. I could easily relate to the big, noisy Bagthorpe family and especially “ordinary Jack”. Another of Helen’s creations, “Lizzie Dripping” – specifically the TV version of it – gave me vivid nightmares. In my 20s, working at Puffin Books, I was lucky enough to meet and work with Helen, along with Nina Bawden, Michael Rosen and other writers I’d loved reading as a kid.

If you’d asked eight-year-old me what my ambitions were, I’d very likely have said 1) a champion tennis player – in the style of Bjorn Borg, 2) the fifth member of ABBA or 3) an actor. But, looking back now, I realise that the signs were already there – the thing I was really committed to and spending increasing amounts of time on was writing stories.

I had a lot of encouragement from my family (I still do) and also from teachers, both at my primary school (The Ryde, Hatfield) and my secondary school (St Albans School). Having written stories, poems and plays throughout my primary years, these started getting longer and more ambitious at St Albans School. I remember sitting in my attic bedroom and writing twenty or thirty pages. My teachers – especially Michael Rymer and John Mole – went beyond the call to mentor me. Author Jonathan Stroud was in the year below me at St Albans and we sometimes competed in the annual creative writing competition.

Aged seventeen, I wrote a play – “Old School Ties” – for the local Abbey Theatre. They had been struggling to find a play with enough roles for its all-female youth drama group, so I worked with them to create a bespoke one – an Agatha Christie/Noel Coward pastiche about a murderous school reunion. It had one performance and a very nice review!

After school, I studied English and American Literature at Warwick University. One of the courses was Creative Writing, taught by preeminent screenwriter Andrew Davies.

Although I grew up in land-locked Hertfordshire, every summer, our family loaded up our mustard-coloured Rover – its roof-rack groaning – and travelled to the North Devon coast for a fortnight’s holiday by the sea. We stayed at the Watersmeet Hotel in Mortehoe, which enjoys an amazing position perched on the cliffs above Combesgate Beach. These Devon trips – taken annually for over a decade – were the highlight of my year.

I spent my time swimming and surfing in the sea, playing beach cricket and mini-golf and combing the beaches for sea-glass and cowry shells with my friend Ruth. I’ve loved spending time at the coast and ocean ever since – whether that’s swimming, surfing or just walking along the shore to the sound of crashing waves. I now live in Western Australia, just thirty minutes’ drive from white-sand beaches and the beautiful Indian Ocean. It’s a dream come true – a thread which runs through my entire life.

My relationship with sailing also goes back to my childhood but is more complicated. My Dad loved to sail. My mum gave him a boat for their 21^st wedding anniversary. This was an even more generous gift once you understand that my mum hated being on boats! We actually didn’t get to go out sailing very much – family life got in the way and the boat was moored in Sussex. The few times we did, I enjoyed it and felt like an Enid Blyton character. I especially loved snuggling up to sleep in one of the cosy bunks.

When I wrote the first VAMPIRATES book, my Dad – then in his 80s – read through the sailing scenes and helped me to make them more convincing.

When I arrived here in Perth and started work on the PIRATE ACADEMY books, I seized the opportunity to take sailing lessons at Royal Perth Yacht Club. This was fun, informative and weather-dependent. One week, our lesson was cancelled due to no wind; the next week, it was storm conditions but we went out anyhow. We came aground and almost capsized. These lessons were enough to persuade me that I’m happier as a passenger – preferably with a drink and canapé in my hand – rather than captain or crew. While I was taking lessons here in Western Australia, my brother Jonathan was learning to sail in Scarborough, UK. Unlike me, he really got into it and now sails regularly off the North Yorkshire coast.

I graduated from Warwick University into the recession of 1990 and was slow to find work. In early 1991, I answered an advert in The Guardian for a writer/editor at Usborne Books. After submitting a sample page spread and attending an interview, I got the job.

Usborne had a very successful series of “Puzzle Adventures”, with a well-established format – combining a fun adventure story with a puzzle on every double-page spread. I was commissioned to write Puzzle Adventure no. 16. They gave me the title – “The Pyramid Plot” – and I came up with the story, puzzles and characters, including my acquisitive, morally dubious villain, Iona Fortune. (I’ve enjoyed creating villains ever since.)

Writing the book was my first “proper job”. I was in my early 20s. “The Pyramid Plot” was published in 1992. This was a great introduction to the writing and publishing process. I’m very proud that now, over thirty years later, the book is still in print. Every now and then, people tell me how much they enjoyed it as a kid. I even signed one recently!

In 2022, I started working on a new series, PIRATE ACADEMY. For a long time, I’d had the idea to expand the universe of VAMPIRATES storytelling. I also wanted to respond to requests from teachers and younger kids that I write a pirate adventure suitable for younger readers. Although PIRATE ACADEMY is linked to VAMPIRATES – it is set in the same universe and there are cross-over characters – it was always my ambition that you can enjoy either series without reading the other. (Though I obviously strongly encourage you to read both!)

I was thrilled to persuade Anne McNeil to work with me on PIRATE ACADEMY and to edit the series. Anne is an exceptional editor, who has edited many globally successful authors, including Cressida Cowell. I have wanted to work with Anne for a very long time!

The first PIRATE ACADEMY adventure, “New Kid on Deck” was published in the UK and Ireland by Fox & Ink Books in March 2024. “Missing at Sea” followed in July 2024, with “Sword Echoes” coming in May 2025. The books are all brilliantly illustrated by Teo Skaffa.

The series launched in France (published by Saxo) and Australia and New Zealand (published by Allen & Unwin) in July 2025. PIRATE ACADEMY will launch in the USA and Canada (published by Penguin Workshop) in February 2026.

I’ve been blown away by the responses to PIRATE ACADEMY from authors, children’s book experts and young readers themselves. One review said the series was “like Mad Max for Middle Graders” (David O’Callaghan) whilst another declared “it’s Top Gun for pirates” (Quacked Spines podcast). I’ll take both of those! I’m thrilled that Andrea Reece of Love Reading 4 Kids says, “Rip-roaring doesn’t come close to describing this thrilling pirate adventure” and Jake Hope, Awards Executive, Yoto Carnegies, calls PIRATE ACADEMY “a brilliantly swashbuckling series that really is going from strength to strength.”

VAMPIRATES and PIRATE ACADEMY were optioned together in 2024 and are currently being developed into a major live-action TV series by RubyRock Pictures (London) and Princess Pictures (Melbourne). It’s early days but a screen-writer is on board so watch this space.

VAMPIRATES celebrates 20 years in print in 2025. I’m so proud that the books have consistently been in print for two decades. One of the upsides of our digitally connected world is that I get to hear from readers, who have grown up with the books, all over the world. Readers like Matthew in the US, who told me, “this series made my childhood. I would stay up all night reading and dreaming out the adventures I would take.” Or Abi in the UK who wrote me, “I first read the books when I was 10 in my last year of primary school… Love the books just as much as when I first found them. My copies are very well read.” Others have told me how the books helped them through difficult times growing up.

It’s magical knowing that something I’ve written has touched hearts and minds around the world. And I’m equally thrilled to have new readers coming fresh to the books today.

For over twenty years, I have written about high-jeopardy, adrenaline-fuelled adventures, though I don’t generally think of myself as being super adventurous or an adrenaline-junkie. BUT, in October 2022, my husband PJ and I took a very big plunge…

We moved from London in the UK – home for thirty years – to the other side of the world. Perth, Western Australia is about 9009 miles (that’s 14,500 km) from London with a time difference of seven or eight hours during the year. I was 53 when we made the move and it’s been exciting, occasionally challenging but overall energising.

Since arriving in Perth, I now work full-time as a writer, which is another exciting big adventure in itself. I’m so enjoying getting to know other authors living and working in WA and throughout Australia. It’s great visiting schools, libraries, bookshops and book festivals all over this vast country. At the same time, it’s really important to me to stay connected to my readers, publishers and colleagues in other countries – including the UK, the USA and Europe – and I’m committed to travelling to ensure this. I often organise the day with the different time zones around the country – and around the world – in mind!

As someone who writes so much about sailing and the ocean, the coast and lighthouses, I find the landscape here incredibly inspiring. We have a young Labrador/Retriever cross named Enzo and we love to take him for runs on the beach and dips in the ocean. One of our favourite things to do here, especially on a Sunday “arvo”, is to pack up a picnic and watch the sun set over the ocean in the wide Western Australian sky.