I began writing while living in East Africa during the 1990s. There were stories everywhere. They blew in through my windows and under the doors. I fell over them out on the streets. I was especially struck by the courage of street children who managed to survive extraordinary hardships, trawling city waste dumps to make a living. That is how my first novella, 'Jessicah the Mountain Slayer', began. It was published by Zimbabwe Publishing House and won second prize at the 1996 International Zimbabwe Book Fair and also a White Raven citation from the International Youth Library. Since then I have written for Macmillan Pacesetters, Heinmann's Junior African Writers series, Phoenix Publishers (Nairobi) and short stories for Cricket, Spider and Cicada magazines. My 'Write Your Own' series for Compass Point Books has won several awards. I also write 'quick reads' for teens who prefer small books with big content. I was born in England, where I now live. In earlier lives I studied Prehistory and Archaeology and Social Anthropology at university, and worked in museum education. I write stories in the hopes of understanding how other people live their lives, no matter where that might be on our extraordinary planet.