Children's author
I was born in Bristol and now live in Hampshire with my husband, three children, dog friend (Mabel), tortoise friend (Sid), chicken friends (Bluebell and Snowy) and 30,000 bee friends (Andy, Pamela, Ellie, Mark... you get the idea).
I used to travel the world making wildlife films for the BBC, which was one of the best jobs in the world! I filmed dolphins in the Red Sea, elephants in Namibia, bat-eared foxes in South Africa, giant land crabs in Florida and bison in Canada. Writing scripts for the presenters, including Sir David Attenborough, ignited my passion for writing and taught me ‘less is more’.
But then three babies came along, and you can’t dash off filming polar bears if you’re changing nappies, so I took some time off. I sat in cafés, pushing a buggy with my foot, and wrote little stories, including one about dancing dogs, but I didn’t plan to pursue my writing any further.
Until... the arrival of a certain virus. I found myself, like the rest of the world, stuck at home. We built a pizza oven in the garden and started making a LOT of pizzas. The kids got bored with the usual mozzarella and pepperoni, so we started experimenting. We tried fried bananas, marshmallows, cashew nuts, anchovies, pringles – and it got me thinking. What if different toppings could give you different superpowers? What if a chilli could make you breathe fire? What if a prawn could turn you into a mermaid? I scribbled down some ideas for a picture book, then wrote a few lines, and suddenly I’d written ten thousand words and it definitely wasn’t a picture book any more. Over the next year or so, it developed into my first book: Pizza Pete and the Perilous Potions.
I’m currently writing the second book in the Pizza Pete trilogy. I still love travelling, but, much like Pete, I’m happiest at home.
