Ann was born in North Shields, within spitting distance of the wild North Sea, and spent her childhood in the North East of England. She went to Lancaster and Leicester Universities and then taught English in a comprehensive school in Coventry. She has done many other jobs since leaving school, such as working in a library, selling ice-cream and hot-dogs at Butlins, and packing airline meals at Luton Airport, but the job she likes best and the one she has done for the longest is being a writer.
A playwright and a children’s novelist, she has written seven theatre plays, including: ‘Get Up and Tie Your Fingers’, winner of the John Whiting Award; ‘The Devil’s Ground’, winner of a C.P.Taylor Bursary; and, for children, ‘Alex and the Warrior’ and ‘The Last Snow Rider’ (all toured by NTC). The latest of her twenty children’s books are ‘Glint’, a novel for older readers; and ‘Dream Team’, an ongoing series for younger readers. Her plays are published by Oberon Books. Her children’s books are published by HarperCollins, Heinemann, Random House and Walker Books. Ann is an experienced creative writing tutor and mentor, working with prose writers and playwrights of all ages. Since 2008, she has been the Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Newcastle University, and also tutors on their Creative Writing MA and Writing for Children courses.
After fifteen years of missing her home turf, Ann moved back to the North East with her husband John and their two children. She now lives in Berwick-upon-Tweed, once again within spitting distance of the wild North Sea. Ann finds North Northumberland a great place for a writer to live. For inspiration, it has lots of local stories, ruined castles and a violent past. For walking and thinking, it has the widest, whitest, emptiest beaches in the country, as well as high moors, bleak hills and sparkling rivers full of salmon. It can get pretty cold in winter though – and the wind can be a real bully.
You can see Ann’s personal website here. NTC accept no responsibility for the content of external websites.