I have 30+ years’ experience commissioning and editing award-winning pre-school novelty books, picture books, non-fiction, early readers and young fiction and at Penguin Random House Children’s Books, ABC and Dorling Kindersley in London. I am currently Editorial Director for Five Quills, and have managed a number of freelance picture book and young fiction projects for publishers such as Penguin Random House, Tate and Thames & Hudson. I have also edited and project managed books for authors and illustrators who wanted to create and launch their self-publish their dream picture books. I am an experienced tutor, who has taught a number of picture book webinars  for Write for Kids and SCBWI, and developed the signature Cook Up a Picture Book course.

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I have had the privilege to work with esteemed authors and illustrators including Kes Gray, Garry Parsons, Nick Sharratt, Jane Clarke, James Brown, Paul Morton, Annemarie Anang, Natelle Quek, James Brown, Lizzie Finlay, Lindsey Gardiner, Kate Petty, Ben Blathwayt, Adrian Reynolds, Georgie Birkett, Sean Taylor, Jane Massey, Sara Fanelli, John Prater, Mary Murphy and many others.

I am actively committed to outreach and nurturing underrepresented voices. I designed and taught the Picture Book Foundation Course for the Jericho Prize for unpublished and self-published Black-British children's writers. I am Picture Book Content Consultant on the All Stories committee and a mentor to two underrepresented picture book authors.

Many of the books I have edited have won awards and been shortlisted for regional awards, including the Little Rebels Award, The Teach Early Years Award, the Leeds Book Awards, Brilliant Book Award (Lancashire), the Red House

Children’s Book Award, Booktrust Best Book for Babies, Dundee Children’s Book Award, Junior Aventis Prize for Science Books, and Royal Mail Book Awards.

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My favourite job is crafting books with writers and illustrators and shaping stories. I have a talent for visualizing books and encouraging authors and illustrators to find the heart of their stories. I love collaborating with people who are passionate about their work and understand that creating a great book is a journey, an organic process that evolves over time.

I am a published picture book author. 

l always have other writing projects underway, including more non-fiction picture books, picture books and a young fiction series so I understand the creative journey.  

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Winner of the Irma Black Award for Excellence in Children's Books NSTA Best STEM Book 2020, Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, winner of several book state awards voted for by children

I know what’s it like to receive mystifying rejection letters, to wait endlessly for a reply from publishers, to struggle through a revision and to experience the elation of getting a book deal.

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I am a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Advisory Council and the longstanding Regional Advisor (Co-Chair) of the British Isles Region, the largest professional children's writing organization in the world and provider of a variety of excellent professional development and networking opportunities.

In 2018, I was awarded and MBE (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in recognition for my services to childrens' writers and illustrators. I was awarded Stephen Mooser SCBWI Member of the Year in 2019.