Ursula Hurst

Illustrator

Ursula is a professional mural and community artist based in Lancashire.

After graduating from Manchester Polytechnic with a degree in 3D Design she spent many years as a designer and maker of hand carved furniture, exhibiting around the country including Earls Court and the Business Design Centre, Islington.

She then began a career in education where she felt privileged to work with so many wonderful children whose enthusiasm for art and creativity inspired her to become a community artist and launch Art Daze. She now runs art workshops, coordinates community festivals and paints large scale murals. 

But ask any of the children she taught what she wanted to be when she grew up and they will all tell you…an illustrator. 

We are showcasing 100 possible award winning poets who are being showcased in the People's Book Prize. 

This 'not for profit' initiative was set up in 2013 and has encouraged over 23,000 children to date. If you would like to help them become award winning poets, here is the link to vote: https://peoplesbookprize.com/books/childrens-poetry-5th-anniversary-edition/

Topics include: Climate Change, Music, Artists, Healthy Food, Exercise and Fears.

Visit: www.poemsandpictures.co.uk/competition for further information 

Charlotte Lumb

Young Author (15)

Charlotte is a young author from Leeds who underwent major back surgery at the age of 13 for the condition known as Scoliosis (curvature of the spine). After surgery she offered advice to other people facing the operation, and their parents, through her social media channels. To help people potentially facing the same operation she decided to write a book about the experience from diagnosis through to surgery and recovery. March 7th 2018 was her 2 year post-op anniversary.

Her book 'Charlotte's Scoliosis Journey' is now available through Amazon in paperback and kindle formats.

Charlotte's Scoliosis Journey on Amazon

Giles Paley-Philips

Author

Giles was born in East Sussex in 1977 and grew up on the south coast. He neglected his education to pursue a career in music and spent a number of years performing extensively around the UK, including slots at the Glastonbury festival. His book 'THE FEARSOME BEASTIE' (Maverick Arts Publishing) has now sold over 70,000 copies and won The People's Book Prize 2012 and The Heart Of Hawick Children's Book Award 2013, Bizziebaby Gold Award and was Highly Commended in The Forward National Literature Award in the US, It was also Shortlisted for The Rotherham Children's Awards 2012.His third Book 'TAMARA SMALL AND THE MONSTERS' BALL' was Shortlisted for The People's Book Prize 2013.

'THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT DINOSAURS' (Gullane/Parragon) came out in August 2013 and is illustrated by Roald Dahl Funny Prize Winner Liz Pichon, it was the first manuscript Giles' ever wrote after being inspired stumbling across a book of nonsense poetry by Shel Silverstein, shortly after this, his fifth book 'PRINCESS STAY AWAKE' was released to much critical acclaim.

His latest Book ‘LITTLE BELL AND THE MOON’ was released in May 2015 to much critical acclaim, appearing on BBC Radio 2’s Anneka Rice Show and has recently been selected to appear on ITV’s Bookaboo Show in 2016. It is shortlisted for the People's Book Prize 2016 and longlisted for the North Somerset Children's Book Award

A collection of nonsense poetry 'THERE IS A LION IN MY BATHROOM' came out in 2010, with proceeds going to Leukaemia Research.

Giles has a huge online fan base, with now over 152,000 twitter followers and has made several TV appearances including an author special of BBC2's Eggheads and was a judge on ITV’s Share a Story. Giles still lives in Seaford, East Sussex with his wife, Michelle, and their two sons, Elijah and Sonny.

Alex Howard

Alex Howard is perusing a PhD in English Literature. His novel Library Cat was a Blackwell’s bestseller and recently earned him the Beryl Bainbridge First Time Author Award. He has had poetry published widely in journals such as The London Magazine,Cadaverine and Gutter, and is the winner of the Red Cross International Writing Prize. He has performed his work at theScottish Slam Championships, the Hidden Door Festival and the Edinburgh International Book Festival. The nephew of Children’s Author Jana Novotny Hunter, Alex enjoys spending his spare time reading to his own nieces and nephews, and sharing the passion for storytelling that was instilled within him from a young age.

Website: www.alexhoward.org

Twitter: @ajhowardwriter

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theedinburghginnel/

Libby Greenhill

Libby is 8 years old and loves writing and illustrating. She wrote her book 'The Lost Bunny and The Worried Kitten’, when she was 7 and decided to try and sell it to raise money for the RSPCA. Sales went better than she imagined and she has been extremely fortunate to have taken part in ‘The Selby Children’s Reading Festival’ and has been asked to do a story telling session on Saturday 13th May at ‘The Barnes Children’s Literature Festival’, where she will be selling her books too. Especially exciting as she is now especially happy as her book has kindly been published by Poems and Pictures. All pretty thrilling when you are 8. Libby is the youngest of 5 and loves having the time to write and illustrate, a bonus of being Home Educated.

Liz Million

Liz Million is a crazy, lively Illustrator and Author of children’s books that will have you chuckling, drawing, writing and learning within minutes! She claims to be able to draw any animal in the worrrrld and will gladly show you how to draw them skateboarding or dancing!!

Liz likes to think that she has THE best job in world. When she isn’t painting and writing books in her little studio in Darlington, she spends a lot of time travelling the world talking to eager children in amazing schools, libraries and museums! She has been visiting schools for over 14 years and has recently travelled to schools in Hong Kong, Brunei, China, Qatar, Vietnam, Germany, Switzerland to name a few.

She loves drawing crazy creatures, cartoony animals and showing children (and grown ups!) how to become better artists. Once the characters are drawn she then encourages them to write a story for them. Simple!!

She graduated from Kingston upon Thames University in 1998 after her Illustration degree and was snapped up by Walker Books straight away and she has been illustrating ever since.

Since then Liz has created some crazy books like ‘The Not-So-Silly Sausage’ and more traditional tales too. ‘Digger’ is Liz’s own story about a dinosaur that doesn’t know what he wants to be when he grows up.

www.lizmillion.com

Donavan Christopher

A.K.A. Rappaman (writer/poet)

A.K.A. Dee Bo General (performing and recording artist)

Donavan has been writing poetry seriously for the past 15 years as a tool for self - expression and to tackle social problems via the sports participation and cultural equality (SPACE) project in Huddersfield. As D.BO. He has worked the underground circuit in ragga sound systems, jungle / drum and bass, performing and hosting events from local to international venues. He has had a great amount of exposure and success in this field, which still continues today.

He is currently working with young people on Rap poetry educational projects. Themes include respect of self and others and an insight to cultural diversity around the world we all share. Dealing with all types of difficult issues promoting Respect all people he engages the youngsters giving them the forum to share and discuss views, helping them capture and express their thoughts an imagination in a safe environment all done in a fun way.

The objectives are:

• To support schools and organizations delivery of poetry from different cultures. Engaging their thinking ability and writing skills.
• To promote awareness of the contribution of living language to our understanding of our world through social education via rap poetry.
• To promote the value of communication, social respect and the arts in school.

This is achieved by:

• Initial planning with both the literacy co-ordinator and year or group leader.
• Establish what stimulus would be used with young people and organize into ability sets.
• Donovan and teacher working with young people to produce their own writing or performance around issues or subjects that effect are well being and social responsibilities.

Follow-up work with the young people and their teacher in literacy time is encouraged so that work can be re-drafted and presented for display. Young people are encouraged to perform their work to adults and young people within the year group.

Evaluations carried out with young people and staff after going through the rap poetry education sessions has proved very positive, with young people showing great enthusiasm and enjoyment in the performance element and gaining an awareness of the richness of language beyond StandardEnglish.

These are some of the L.E.A.s he has worked in partnerships with, evaluated to a high standard by pupils and staff in Kirklees, York, Wakefield, Oldham, Preston, Bolton, Blackburn, Manchester, Cheshire, Hull, Halifax, Cumbria and Wakefield health authority.

Lambeth City Council, Kent, West Sussex, and Surrey Birmingham, North East England

East Anglia, South West L.e.a, Wales, Derbyshire and Leeds City council Dundee and more.

Donavan has recently had his first book published through Caboodle books and AuthorsAbroad, (Rappaman) which has been well received at home and abroad.

He has also worked with West Yorkshire police and the charity Crime stoppers delivering anti violence sessions and around the issues of cyber bullying.

Here are the International Schools who have had the pleasure of meeting and working with Mr. Christopher. Moscow 3 days Holland 3 days, 8 days in Switzerland 14 days in Kuwait 3 weeks in Qatar and more recently 3 schools in Egypt..

With positive feedback from the staff and students of the Schools involved. And more recently schools in Qatar where he spent 4 weeks promoting his book and respect for all people. 2 days in ASM in Milan. He has also worked at Army garrison Schools in Cyprus for a week. Another School added to his journey is Khartoum International Community School in Sudan 9 days. And more recently he has worked at a School in Hannover Germany.

The latest schools have been in Cambodia Phnom Penh 2 weeks and 3 days in Sharjah / Dubai.

Donavan’s second book Rappaman to the Rescue (In the book of rooms) has recently been published in 2012 by Caboodle books and is also now available on school visits and by request.

For more info and bookings:

donavanb7@hotmail.com

Tel: 07971-0247-08

Rappaman.co.uk

Ric Lumb

Author/Illustrator

Ric Lumb is a Yorkshire based illustrator and games artist. He wrote his first children's book over ten years ago "A Knight Before Christmas" while working as a freelance cartoonist and graphic design consultant. Occasionally re-writing and adding bits to the story it stayed hidden until he finally decided to self-publish the title on Amazon. Ric has also produced books featuring his comic strips "Dinki dinosaur" and "Inky & Fred" and worked on illustrations for Christina Gabbitas including her latest Felicity Fly title, Share Some Secrets and several poetry books written by children.

The North Pole has been invaded by a fire breathing dragon. Santa must travel back in time in search of a brave knight, to deal with the menace, or Christmas will be ruined forever!

A Knight Before Christmas is now available on Amazon in paperback and kindle formats and also as an audio download from Beacon Audiobooks.

Ric has a website featuring his illustration and video game work at www.puttycad.co.uk

Stuart Reid

Author

As well as his jam-packed reading tour, Stuart has also enjoyed successful live events at the Edinburgh Festival where he plans to take up residence again in 2017, London Book Fair in 2012 and 2013 and ITV’s 2012 ‘Get Britain Reading’ campaign. He has also featured in a number of national and regional press including The Sunday Express and Daily Record, although he continues to describe himself as ‘one of the most popular children’s authors nobody has heard of’.

With five books already published and a sixth due out in Spring 2017, Stuart’s overwhelming passion and enthusiasm shows no sign of stopping. His Gorgeous George series is written specifically with children in mind and was inspired by Reid’s understanding that the books adults (like himself) loved as children - including Enid Blyton’s Famous Five and Mallory Towers - simply weren’t on the same wavelength as children today. Reid is up front with the fact that many adults and teachers will in fact find his stories hard to enjoy given the prevalence of bogies, breaking wind and false teeth flying but then again that’s exactly the point - his books provide something cheeky and out of the ordinary in order to engage the imagination of young readers.

www.stuart-reid.com

Dom Conlon

Author

Dom Conlon is a space poet and crumpet king. His writing workshops are a hit in schools, and his storytelling has been praised across Lancashire where he is much in demand. With three picture books and a collection of poetry to his name,

Dom shares his work on www.inkology.co.uk and elsewhere and is a dedicated defender of libraries. He is one of the poets on the hugely popular Funeverse website - www.thefuneverse.com

Daniel Ingram-Brown

Author

Born in East London, Daniel Ingram-Brown now lives in Knaresborough, in a house built from the stones of the town’s ruined castle. As well as being an author, he works in the field of performance and is currently Artistic Director of Suitcase and Spectacles Children’s Theatre, and part of the artistic direction team for Pointed Arrow Performance. 

Daniel is the author of a series of books called "The Firebird Chronicles" for children aged 8-12. Book 1, "Rise of the Shadow Stealers" was published in 2013 and book 2, "The Nemesis Charm" is due out at the end of May with a launch in Waterstones in Leeds.

Daniel is also the Chair of the Leeds Big Bookend (a "rock festival for words") and has been involved in community projects such as The Leeds Story Cycle, Drink with a Chimp, Stories from the Forests of Leeds and New Wortley Community Centre workshops.

Daniel visits schools, libraries and bookshops to give author talks and run workshops.

For more information see Daniel's website:

https://danielingrambrown.wordpress.com/about-me/ 

Andy Seed

Author

Andy Seed writes for both children and adults and is the author of over 30 titles. He specialises in humorous non-fiction and his Silly Book of Side-Splitting Stuff (Bloomsbury) won the 2015 Blue Peter Book Award (Best Book with Facts). The third book in this series, The Silly Book of Weird and Wacky Words (Bloomsbury) has been shortlisted for the 2016 Blue Peter Book Award and Andy is excited about the possibility of being on the legendary TV show again and potentially winning a third BP badge!

Andy’s first children’s book How to Spot a Hadrosaur in a Bus Queue

 (Hodder) – a collection of fun and fascinating lists – was listed by the School Library Association as one of the top 100 books to get boys reading. Andy now visits over 50 schools a year around the UK inspiring children to read and getting them excited about books. He also appears at children’s book festivals across the country and has recently performed at The Hay Festival, Bath Children’s Literature Festival, Hertford Children’s Book Festival, Shrewsbury Bookfest and Books on Tyne alongside Anne Fine and David Almond.

Andy has also written a popular series of memoirs for adults about his days as a young teacher in the Yorkshire Dales in the 1980s. All Teachers Great and Small (Headline) was serialised in the Daily Mail which described it as ‘heartwarming and hilarious’. Andy lives in the wilds of North Yorkshire where he loves roaming the hills.

www.andyseed.com

Julie Fulton

Author

Julie predominantly writes picture books, but also enjoys trying chapter books and is busy editing a middle grade novel.

She has had four picture books published by Maverick Arts Publishing and the fifth - Bossy Jonathan Fossy - will be out in March 2016.   Julie is a member of SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators), The Golden Egg Academy and the Society of Authors. She also enjoys being a part of two active picture book critique groups.   When not writing (or working on the allotment, or reading, or narrow boating, or cooking, or dancing, or singing….), Julie teaches piano, woodwind and singing. She qualified as a reflexologist and Reiki master teacher, but just shares these with friends now and feels it will stay that way unless someone works out how to squash 18 hours into every day. You can find out even more about Julie at www.juliefulton.com