Category: Interviews

Blog, Blog series, Bookshelf, Interview, Interviews, on writing, Writing craft

Katherine Woodfine on judging the Branford Boase Award 2026

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Author Katherine Woodfine shares insights on the judging process for this year’s 2026 Branford Boase Award and how some parts of the process surprised her when it came to reading the longlisted novels.

Katherine Woodfine with her fellow judges (left to right, Anjali Patel, Katherine, Margaret McDonald 2025 winner, and Stephen Dilley)

By Katherine Woodfine

Lately, it’s felt as though the children’s books industry is being battered by one depressing headline after another. Reading for pleasure hits a new low; children are now swiping their books as if they were iPhones; and at any moment, the robots are going to come to rot our brains (not to mention, destroy our careers) with AI slop… You’d be forgiven for being downcast — perhaps even a little doomed? But to set against the gloom, I’d like to share (Pollyanna-style) some of the ‘glad things’ that I’ve lately discovered, as part of the judging panel for this year’s Branford Boase Award.

You probably already know that the Branford Boase is an annual award for debut children’s fiction. You might also know that it is unique, in that it celebrates both the author and the editor of the winning book. What you may not, perhaps, know is that the Award is named in tribute to two talented women in publishing — writer Henrietta Branford and editorial director Wendy Boase, who both died of cancer in 1999 — and aims to encourage the development of new writers in their memory.

It’s a wonderful prize, which has recognised authors including Marcus Sedgwick, Meg Rosoff, Siobhan Dowd and Mal Peet. A decade on, I still feel immensely proud to have been longlisted for my own debut, The Clockwork Sparrow — especially as it was an honour I shared with my editors, Ali Dougal and Hannah Sandford.

I was also very proud to be invited to be a judge this year. As a children’s author and a book reviewer, I flattered myself that I had a good overview of new titles, but the judging process proved to be full of all kinds of delightful surprises. Reading my way through this year’s longlist, I made rich discoveries across young fiction, middle grade, teen and YA.

It was no easy task for my fellow judges and I to choose just seven of these excellent debuts for our shortlist, but I think the books we settled on truly showcase that richness. There is so much variety to enjoy, from tender-hearted and thoughtful teen romance (Tart by Becki Jayne Crossley) to gripping and challenging science-fiction (Augmented by Kenechi Udogu).

There are books that will scare the life out of you (Jack McKay’s Gloam), books that will make you snort-laugh out loud (Harry Trevaldwyn’s The Romantic Tragedies of a Drama King) and books that will lift your spirits (Ella Dove’s How to Roller-Skate On One Leg).

There are books that shine a light on important moments from the past (like Janeen Hyatt’s Evie and Maryam’s Family Tree) and books which feel absolutely rooted in the here and now — like Love on Sight by Asli Jensen, set in a brilliantly authentic present-day multicultural London.

There are books that pay tribute to literary traditions — Patch, the narrator of Romantic Tragedies of a Drama King is absolutely the successor to Georgia Nicholson and Adrian Mole, while Gloam has hints of Coraline, A Monster Calls and every horror story that ever made you scared to turn off the light — and yet they also feel distinctive and fresh. To say there’s something for everyone is a horrible cliché — and yet I do think that so many readers will be able to discover aspects of themselves, their lives and their interests in these pages.

In the statements from the editors that accompany each book, the judges also had the unique opportunity to reflect on something that is very often invisible — the unique creative collaboration that exists between author and editor. We witnessed the editors’ enthusiasm and dedication, as well as their skill, sensitivity and intelligence in helping to shape the stories and steer their authors in the first steps of their publishing careers.

Three of our shortlisted books were originally submitted for writing competitions: Love on Sight was entered for The Times/Chicken House competition and won the Lime Prize; Augmented won the inaugural Imagined Futures Prize for YA science fiction; and Evie and Maryam won the Guppy Open Submission Competition. If we ever needed proof of the power of these kinds of initiatives to bring compelling new voices into publishing, this is surely it.

Each of these books is well-written, well-crafted and compelling, but there the similarities end. In her 1932 essay ‘How Should One Read a Book?’ Virginia Woolf observed that ‘people are always behaving as if all books were of the same species—as if there were only tortoises or nothing but tigers’. The real joy of this process was witnessing the way that children’s books continue to thrive in all their wondrous variety.

This is a landscape of vitality, gloriously populated by tortoises, tigers and a whole variety of other creatures — impossible, possible and everything in between. It is a whole ecosystem of rich life, which makes clear that, in spite of all, what Frances Hardinge (herself a Branford Boase winner) so memorably described as ‘the beautiful jungle of children’s literature’ continues to thrive. If you, too, need to discover some ‘glad things’, then the Branford Boase is the perfect place to start looking.

The seven books shortlisted for the 2026 Branford Boase Award are:

Tart by Becki Jayne Crossley, edited by Cathy Liney (Bloomsbury)

How to Roller Skate with One Leg by Ella Dove, illustrated by Jennifer Jamieson, edited by Anne Marie Ryan (Orchard Books)

Evie and Maryam’s Family Tree by Janeen Hayat, edited by Bella Pearson (Guppy Books)

Love on Sight by Asli Jensen, edited by Shalini Vallepur (Chicken House)

Gloam by Jack Mackay, edited by Katie Jennings (Rock the Boat)

The Romantic Tragedies of a Drama King by Harry Trevaldwyn, edited by Emma Jones and Charlie Castelletti (First Ink)

Augmented by Kenechi Udogu, edited by Natasha Brown and Jenny Glencross (Faber).

.

Katherine Woodfine

Katherine Woodfine is the author of more than 15 books for children, including the Sinclair’s Mysteries and Taylor & Rose Secret Agents series. Her first published novel, The Clockwork Sparrow, was a Sunday Times bestseller and was nominated for numerous awards. A champion of children’s literature, she has previously worked on projects including the Children’s Laureate, YALC (the UK’s first young adult literature convention) and podcast Down the Rabbit Hole, and is now the book reviewer for The Week Junior magazine.

The Branford Boase Award

Set up in memory of author Henrietta Branford and her editor Wendy Boase, the Branford Boase Award is the only award to recognise the editor as well as the author. Find out more about this year’s shortlisted books on the website. The winner will be announced on Wednesday 8 July.

PaperBound Magazine is an online magazine for the young, and the young at heart. We are dedicated to showcasing authors and illustrators for children’s and young adult fiction and we strive to deliver inspiring content, uplifting stories, and top tips for young and aspiring writers yet to burst on to the literary scene.

All our issues are completely free and run by volunteers, however if you would like to support PaperBound and the work we do, you can help us out by buying us a virtual book. We appreciate any support you can give us!

Don’t forget you can read with the latest issues of PaperBound Magazine – completely free – here.

article, Blog, Blog series, Bookshelf, Interview, Interviews, on writing, Writing craft

Interview: Kamizen: Fortress of Lost Memories by William Yamaguchi Dobson

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Recently, we not only got to attend the brilliant book launch for Kamizen: Fortress of Lost Memories, but we also interviewed the author, William Yamaguchi Dobson. Read on to discover more about this magical and heartfelt debut, based on Japanese myth and folklore.

Could you introduce us to your book, Kamizen: Fortress of Lost Memories?

It’s a middle-grade fantasy about a boy called Jonty who meets a mystical bonobo in Yorkshire and is offered the chance to enter through The Gate of Memory so that he can recover lost memories belonging to his beloved grandfather and help him finish his memoir about life as a primatologist.

What can you share with us about the inspiration behind the book?

Inspiration, I find, is a mystical thing in itself – if I could pinpoint the exact source, I would drop a GPS pin and camp there for the rest of my writing life. Thinking back now, I would say there were several whispers in my ear. I wanted to write a story about the relationship between a child and grandparent. One of my all-time favourite stories is Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book. I then wondered if I could combine that with my interest in primatology and jazz, as one does on a quiet afternoon. And because of the experience I had with my father’s dementia for over a decade, I had been reading widely about the science of memory. Everything slowly fell into place.

… memories are what make us human and it’s through stories that we remember those who no longer remember us.

The story combines real-life sensitive topics with a highly fantastical world. How hard was it to balance the two? And what do you hope readers take from this story?

The book is aimed at children eight and over. My children witnessed my father’s cognitive and physical decline from a very young age. They had never known him other than “Grandad is poorly”. Many families I imagined were in the same boat. So I wanted to write a story for my children and fellow passengers about preserving the memory of a person before the anarchy of dementia changed them – a time before grandad became poorly. I don’t think I necessarily planned it this way at the outset, but the message I wanted to convey gently is that memories are what make us human and it’s through stories that we remember those who no longer remember us.

I didn’t find it too difficult carrying out the balancing exercise between telling the fantastical story and handling the topic of dementia. The reality of end stage dementia is that it’s relentlessly grim, but you can’t write a children’s story (or an adult one) with relentless grimness. Nobody would read that and nobody should. You sow enough hints about the reality and let your readers water it with their imagination, because the primary duty you have to the reader is that your book is there to entertain them.

There are so many wonderful characters in the book, including a talking bonobo and lots of brilliant yōkai characters. Were all these taken from Japanese mythology and folklore, or did you create anyone specially for this book. And, also, did you have a favourite to write?

A few characters were borrowed from folklore and myth. The kappa is one of the best known yōkai, alongside the tengu. The earth spider is also from a legendary tale. The talking bonobo, however, is entirely my invention, although there is a yōkai known as a satori, which has monkey-like features.

Lafcadio, the Irish kappa, wrote himself. Once I figured out his voice, he was telling me how he would say things and crossing out what I’d written. And to give PaperBound an exclusive, did you know the paintbrush yōkai, Kaita Zanko has several layers of hidden meaning? Kaita is the past tense of “to write” in Japanese. Kaita Zanko is an anagram of Takai Kozan, patron of the Edo period artist Hokusai and himself a painter of nightmarish yōkai.

Zanko is a one-armed yōkai in tribute to Shigeru Mizuki, one of Japan’s most treasured manga artists and folklorists who repopularised yōkai among postwar audiences.

This is your debut book, but it also came out first with Audible. Could you share a little about your experience with the creation of the audio book, and your journey to publication?

Audible acquired the book first and Scholastic bought the print rights shortly after. I had simultaneous edits and a smooth journey through production on both counts. The team Audible assembled was out of this world and you can tell from the quality of the production. There are so many highlights from the time, but two that stand out are: (1) when I was sent the audition clip for Tomoya Errington, who went on to be cast in the lead role. He stars in every single scene and is brilliant in every way; (2) when I first heard Timothy Spall playing Gramps I was walking along Tottenham Court Road and burst into tears as he sounded so much like my father (it happened opposite Waterstones, where I ended up holding my book launch!).

What has been the best publishing experience so far? And has there been a worst?

Working with Polly Lyall Grant and Karen Ball, my editors at Scholastic, and the wider team there has been a joy and painless experience. I wish I could find something to quibble about to give a juicy answer, but I’ll have to disappoint you! Best publishing experience? I received my first copy of Kamizen on my mother’s birthday when she happened to be staying with us, so I let her open the parcel without telling her what was inside. That was a lovely shared moment, entirely coincidental. 

Can you tell us about anything else that you are currently working on?

I am reverting to writing longhand for a new project that may result in a highly illustrated middle-grade novel about a boy, a forest spirit and an unforgettable summer in the mountains of Japan.

What piece of advice would you give an aspiring writer thinking about writing for young people?

Know your audience. If you have children, watch what they’re watching – see what makes them laugh and holds their attention: you can translate some of this to print fiction. You should already know what they’re reading and be familiar with the latest titles. Most importantly, in the words of Inspector Harold Francis Callahan, “you’ve got to ask yourself one question.” Why would a [insert age] child want to read the book I’m thinking of writing?

Kamizen: Fortress of Lost Memories by William Yamaguchi Dobson is out now, and published by Scholastic.

William Yamaguchi Dobson

William Yamaguchi Dobson worked as a barrister before turning his hand to writing fiction. His childhood in Japan and love of manga influence his stories. When not looking after his children, he can be found reading or writing and likes to start the day with a cup of matcha and a smile.

PaperBound Magazine is an online magazine and blog for the young, and the young at heart. We are dedicated to showcasing authors and illustrators for children’s and young adult fiction and we strive to deliver inspiring content, uplifting stories, and top tips for young and aspiring writers yet to burst on to the literary scene.

All our issues are completely free and run by volunteers, however if you would like to support PaperBound and the work we do, you can help us out by buying us a virtual book. We appreciate any support you can give us!

Don’t forget you can read with the latest issues of PaperBound Magazine – completely free – here.

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Interview: Tig Wallace on whirlwind YA debut Storm Bringer

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Author Tig Wallace joins the PaperBound blog to chat about his debut YA novel, Storm Bringer, the first in a series, following protagonist Amelio in a fantasy world where magical storms are deadly and nations stand divided. As Publishing Director of Little, Brown Book Group, Tig shares how he wrote the novel and his take on the publishing industry sitting on the other side of the fence.

Could you tell us a little about your thrilling debut novel, Storm Bringer? 

Absolutely, and thank you for having me. Storm Bringer is a YA fantasy novel, set in a world besieged by big magical storms. The protagonist, Amelio, has lived in relative shelter for the past ten years, but has to, quite literally, venture into the storm when his mother goes missing. He encounters a world he never really knew and has to come to terms with a power he didn’t know he had, as the biggest storm ever threatens to destroy everything. It’s a bit like the movie Twisters but with tons of magic and a younger – and more rebellious – cast.  

You have a background in publishing from working as an editor for Penguin and Hachette Children’s and now as Publishing Director at Little, Brown Book Group. How does it feel to be on the other side of the industry? 

It’s wonderful, if a little strange, to be on the other side of the table – I feel very lucky to get to do both. What’s surprised me the most is how brand new everything feels as an author. I went into it thinking I’d be able to anticipate some of how I’d feel, having a bit of inside scoop on the process, but that hasn’t been the case at all. I feel just as excited, nervous, and caught up in a whole range of emotions as every other author. People are kind and gerenous and I’ve been very well supported by everyone. I do sometimes have to turn my editor brain off though! 

From the start of the novel, the reader is plunged into action and adventure. How did you come up with the premise for Storm Bringer? Was it something that had been brewing for a while before you started writing? 

I read an article years ago about a woman who chased eclipses – catching flights west during lunar events to see them as many times as she could, or for as long as possible. It stuck with me and morphed into an idea about chasing storms instead and eventually into an image in my mind of a teenager facing down an apocalyptic tornado. That was the seed of it all. I put it on the back burner initially to try writing other things, but kept coming back to it, and finally decided to write it. 

I knew I wanted to write fantasy that was action-packed and pacy, and hopefully also funny amidst all the peril. I always loved fantasy, whether classic or modern in feel, from Ursula Le Guin to Garth Nix to Leigh Bardugo, but also books that feel like blockbusters, like Matthew Reilly’s and Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider. I also love a disaster movie. So I thought, what if I bring all those things I love together…and the result is Storm Bringer. 

Write the book you really want to write, not the one you think you should write – I can vouch for that first hand …

The storms that appear throughout the novel, in their many fashions, seem terrifying. Did you always know you wanted the elements to be such a striking force in this novel? 

I’m glad they are terrifying! Yes, that was always the vision, and I knew I wanted to open with something big and startling to set the tone for what’s to come. There’s of course a great tradition of weather magic in fantasy novels, but I didn’t feel like I’d read anything where storms themselves are so innately magical and destructive. When I landed on that as an idea, it just seemed like something that made this world unique…and that it would be fun to write. I love a big set piece and I had a great time working out what would feel most dramatic on the page. But I also loved the idea that we might learn a lot about the characters by throwing them into massive storms. In Storm Bringer, life and death scenarios bring true feelings to the surface in the most intense moments. 

The two settings of Amrigo and Nimira are very distinct. How did you craft them into fruition, and were they inspired by anything in particular?

From the first iteration of the book I had ‘the Fault’ – the abyss that separates the two sides – but the rest took a long time to craft and work out. The magic vs no magic distinction wasn’t enough, so I spent time thinking about the history of the two places, their geographies, their mythologies, their beliefs, and tried to bring that through in the text. It’s funny, there’s actually loads more I wrote about Amrigo that didn’t make it into the final version of the book, for good reason. The thrust of the action takes place in Nimira and the book would have been much too long if we spent longer in Amrigo, but I was sad to leave Dex behind so soon in the story. Watch this space though! 

In The Hunger Games I love that Panem is a fantasy world based in reality, set on the North American continent. I drew inspiration from that a little for Storm Bringer – although it’s a pure fantasy world, I wanted it to feel like it could be ours with a big twist. A bit like the alternate Oxford we see in Northern Lights. I’m a huge sci-fi fan as well and I guess when I pictured Amrigo – at least where Amelio lives – I imagined something like the dusty, solitary peripheral towns in Blade Runner or the industrial off-world settlements in the Alien franchise. A place that’s gritty and unforgiving, geared towards function. 

One of the most captivating things about this novel is how it contrasts magic with science. Are you drawn, personally, to one more than the other?  

Ooh, what a great question. I would have to say magic: I think however you define it, there is an exciting, unknown about it that represents something distinct from our own world. 

When it comes to Storm Bringer I’m most interested in how both magic and science are changing. As the book starts, we see magic has been declining, science on the rise, and the different attitudes and beliefs towards both, depending where you are in the world. These beliefs stem from history that has become mythology, and I’ve enjoyed exploring this through Amelio’s eyes. We see that both originate from the same source and I think there’s lots to explore in the grey area where the two meet. 

Can you tell us what other projects you are currently working on, or what readers can expect from you next?   

I am busy working away on the sequel to Storm Bringer, which is the first of three of books. Book two picks up pretty soon after the events of book one and readers can expect lots more from our three main characters, each of them dealing with something pretty major after the conclusion of the previous story. Book two roves further across the map, deepens the mythology of the world, showcases bigger magic and, of course, features lots of massive storms.  

What top tips would you give to readers looking to pursue their dream of becoming a published author?    

I’m going to start by telling you my worst habit – as both an author and editor – which is that my default is to think I need a big chunk of time to start writing or editing. It’s not true. Big chunks of time are great of course, but don’t always present themselves. So, my first piece of advice is to sit down and write, even if you only have half an hour. 

The second tip is also about the writing itself: help tomorrow’s you by where you leave your writing today. I feel much less daunted, and much better equipped, to start writing when I’ve left myself in a good spot in the previous session. I leave myself scrappy notes in the document to remind myself what I have to do next, and I often pause writing before I’ve finished a scene or chapter, because I find it’s easier to get back into the flow that way, rather than starting a brand new scene from cold. 

My final tip is a classic with a twist I guess. Write the book you really want to write, not the one you think you should write – I can vouch for that first hand. That said, I think it’s really smart to equip yourself with as much market knowledge as you can. Go to book shops, trawl online, look at publisher catalogues to get a sense of what else is out there and working well. Think about which books you’d love to see yours sitting alongside in a shop. When it comes to approaching an agent, a publisher, or self-publishing, it will make your book feel more commercial and help it find its audience. 

Storm Bringer by Tig Wallace is out now from Chicken House

Tig Wallace

Tig Wallace grew up in a town between London and Oxford, reading as much fantasy as possible. After work as a runner on movies, and a brief, eye-opening experience working in magazines, Tig started a career in book publishing as an editor. Tig is a keen tennis fan, as both spectator and player, a cat enthusiast, and has never been known to say no to karaoke. He lives in London. Storm Bringer is his first book. 

PaperBound Magazine is an online magazine and blog for the young, and the young at heart. We are dedicated to showcasing authors and illustrators for children’s and young adult fiction and we strive to deliver inspiring content, uplifting stories, and top tips for young and aspiring writers yet to burst on to the literary scene.

All our issues are completely free and run by volunteers, however if you would like to support PaperBound and the work we do, you can help us out by buying us a virtual book. We appreciate any support you can give us!

Don’t forget you can read with the latest issues of PaperBound Magazine – completely free – here.

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Alexandra Benedict on middle grade debut The Merry Christmas Murders

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Interview by Laura Jones

Bestselling novelist Alexandra Benedict chats to regular contributor, Laura Jones, on middle grade debut The Merry Christmas Murders – the perfect festive read!

Could you tell us a little about your new middle grade novel, The Merry Christmas Murders?

Brooke Parkin not expecting it to be a very merry Christmas. She is an anxious autistic ADHDer whose only friend is her loyal support dog, Buoy, and the headmaster of her new school has died in mysterious circumstances.

And then she meets the other members of the Neurokind Club, an after-school group for neurodivergent kids. Together, Brooke and the rest of the club must embrace their strengths and their growing friendship to solve the murders and make Christmas merry after all.

Congratulations on your debut children’s book. How was the process of writing The Merry Christmas Murders different to your previously published work, such as Murder on the Christmas Express, and what are the biggest differences in writing for middle grade readers as opposed to an adult audience?

I was really surprised that, for me, the process of writing for kids was really similar to that of for adults, aside from getting the tone right for middle grade (not too dark, not too light) and making motives for the murders age appropriate.

We hear that growing up you were a fan of The Famous Five and The Secret Seven by Enid Blyton. How have those books inspired you on your journey to being a successful author?

I loved the spooky atmospheres, the plots, and how they all used different skills to solve the mystery, something I hope also appears in The Merry Christmas Murders. Most of all, I absolutely adored George – she was so strong and clever.

I was really inspired by how she rejected expectations of what it is to be female. And who didn’t love Timmy the dog? Buoy, Brooke’s support animal, is directly inspired by Timmy.

I am really driven by writing fully rounded neurodivergent characters. Looking back, all of my main characters have been ND, even if at the time I didn’t know it!

The Merry Christmas Murders features a strong neurodiverse cast, including Brooke, Robyn and Nisha. As somebody that was diagnosed as Autistic and ADHD as an adult, how important was it to you to create main characters that reflected the neurodiverse community? Which of your characters, from this book or one of your other novels, inspires you the most?

I am really driven by writing fully rounded neurodivergent characters. Looking back, all of my main characters have been ND, even if at the time I didn’t know it! I love Brooke’s bravery – she is so anxious, all of the time, and it takes her real courage to not hide it. She inspires me to get outside when I otherwise would stay in for days.

There’s a lot of attention given to the humble mince pie in this story. What does a perfect Christmas look like to you?

In the run up to Christmas, I revel in festive activities such as Christmas markets, wreath making, going on the Polar Express, seeing friends, making decorations, etc. From Christmas Eve on, I relish being at home with my little family, eating lots, watching lots, playing lots and laughing even more. I love Christmas SO MUCH!

If you had to sum up The Merry Christmas Murders in only three words, what would you choose?

Fun, kind, inclusive.

Can you tell us what other projects you are currently working on – will there be more adventures from the Neurokind Club to look forward to?

The Neurokind Club will be back next year in The Jingle Bell Murders! I’m writing it at the moment, alongside my next adult Christmas mystery, The Advent of Death.

What top tips would you give to readers looking to pursue their dream of becoming a published author? And what are the biggest challenges?

Read and write as much as you can, in different genres and styles! A classic piece of advice in creative writing circles is to ‘write what you know’, but I advise writing about what you’d like to know.

What fascinates you? What story has gripped you so much that you have to tell it?

Finding purpose in your writing is really important as it’s a very difficult industry to get into, and even harder to stay in, so believing in yourself and your words is essential. I’d also advise finding other writer friends to celebrate with when you have success and commiserate with at all other times!

The Merry Christmas Murders is out now and published by Simon & Schuster

Alexandra Benedict

Alexandra Benedict is a USA Today bestselling and award-winning writer for children and adults. Her novels, including the Gold Dagger shortlisted The Christmas Murder Game and Little Red Death are published in twenty territories.

Huge thanks to Laura Jones for preparing the interview questions. Laura is one of our regular contributors and her reviews feature in issues of PaperBound Magazine. Read her review of The Merry Christmas Murders in our autumn/winter issue by checking out our issues page.

Laura Jones

Laura Jones is a secondary school teacher in Cornwall. She teaches English and Media and recently completed an MA in Publishing. Laura is part of a local writing group and hopes to eventually complete one of the many book ideas she has saved on her laptop, some of which are inspired by the Cornish landscape.

PaperBound Magazine is an online magazine for the young, and the young at heart. We are dedicated to showcasing authors and illustrators for children’s and young adult fiction and we strive to deliver inspiring content, uplifting stories, and top tips for young and aspiring writers yet to burst on to the literary scene.

All our issues are completely free and run by volunteers, however if you would like to support PaperBound and the work we do, you can help us out by buying us a virtual book. We appreciate any support you can give us!

Don’t forget you can read with the latest issues of PaperBound Magazine – completely free – here.

Abdullah's Bear Needs A Name! Illustration 1 by Sophie Benmouyal
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Guest post: Shirley-Anne Brightman and Yasmin Hanif on The Power of Storytelling and Using Your Own Name

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By Shirley-Anne Brightman and Yasmin Hanif

Shirley-Anne Brightman and Yasmin Hanif share a special guest post with PaperBound all about the ‘We Can Be Heroes’ project, designed for all young readers to see themselves in published stories.

‘They had a tradition in their family, that the night before Eid, they would hear a special story.‘ – The Cave of Gemstones, ‘We Can Be Heroes Project’, St Albert’s. Illustration by Anila Babla

That evening, as Abba tucked Abdullah into bed, he asked, “Would you like to hear one of my dadaji’s old stories from Pakistan?” Abdullah’s eyes lit up. “Yes! Can you tell me the one about the mighty horse?”

– Abdullah’s Bear Needs A Name by Yasmin Hanif and illustrated by Sophie Benmouyal

© Floris

Storytelling has long been a tradition in many cultures around the world. In older generations in South Asian Pakistani culture, oral storytelling is often the only way stories were shared and passed down.

When I began working with a charming, little school in Glasgow on their ‘We Can Be Heroes’ project helping primary school children to see themselves in the stories they read, I had no idea how central the story of how the project began would be to the project itself, and indeed my unwritten book at that point. In fact, my few years with the schools, saw an ocean of stories; from fiction, non-fiction, memoir to something in between fill the school.

Shirley-Anne Brightman, the pioneer of the project and the Principal Teacher explains how our collaboration came about…

Shirley-Anne’s Story

When I was on playground duty, some of the older pupils came up to me asking for help: “Mrs Brightman, we don’t know enough names, can you help us?” Totally confused, I asked them to explain. They were preparing a Guess the Name of the Teddy fundraising activity and needed 30 names to be chosen by players; so far they had James, Emily and Belinda.

“I don’t understand, what about your name, Zainab? Or yours, Anum? There’s Eesa over there, Mohammed, Zeenat … we have 300 children in the school, what’s wrong with their names?” I asked with slight concern. I feared I knew what their reasons might be.

“You can’t call a teddy those names!” they said in complete sincerity.

“Why not?” I replied, matching their tone as nearly as I could.

It wasn’t the first time we had observed a disregard in our pupils for their own identity. We had seen primary 1 children drawing self-portraits showing themselves with white skin when their own was brown.

Some of the ways we were trying to address the representation was in the reading schemes and class library books we were buying but the books we wanted to buy were hard to find, if not non-existent.

I went to our Headteacher. “We have to do something!” I told her. “It’s not right.”

So, we did.

We worked with the Scottish Black People, People of Colour Writers Network (SBPOC) to find writers who would work with our pupils to write our own stories. That’s when we met Yasmin.

Yasmin’s experience

During phase 1 of the project the children came up with various ideas such as superheroes and secret laboratories (‘The Zedriz’), a shipwreck and being stranded on a remote island (‘Home is Where the Heart Is’) to two sisters being trapped in a cave (‘Cave of Gemstones’). By this stage in our project, the stories the children came up with still reflected what they read themselves or watched on TV or YouTube.

Just the like kids at the school, Abdullah struggles to name his bear, until he hears an old story from his heritage.

It was during phase 3 of the project that I felt the storytelling and imagination of both the school and the community were really captured.

One of the parents of the pupils I was working with told me a real-life story based on her grandparents falling in love in India, and a golden bangle that had been passed down through the generations. She still wore those bangles to this day. This became one of the published stories from the project.

Beat of the Dhol, ‘We Can Be Heroes’, St Albert’s.
Illustration by Hannah Rounding.

I found that storytelling leaves a legacy, not just a physical one like those bangles but a legacy of confidence, and of empowerment for those pupils that I worked with at the school, and they would be taking that legacy with them into later life.

In the same way, Abdullah gets a teddy bear passed down through the generations from his Abba (or dad) in my debut picture book, Abdullah’s Bear Needs A Name! which was inspired by events from the school. Just the like kids at the school, Abdullah struggles to name his bear, until he hears an old story from his heritage.

The message on both accounts is a powerful one; that your name matters, that your stories matter, that you matter.

© Floris

The ‘We Can Be Heroes’ project won the school several awards for its creative approach to the literacy curriculum. Find out more about the project here.

If you would like to support the project, you can do so by buying the books here or by requesting a copy in your local bookshop.

Learn more about Yasmin Hanif by visiting her website.

Yasmin Hanif

Yasmin is a Scottish writer and educator. She was shortlisted for the Kavya Arts Prize in 2023 for her story which became her debut picture book, Abdullah’s Bear Needs A Name! (Floris, 2025). She was a writer in residence at a primary school and worked on their project to promote diversity and inclusion within children’s writing and publishing, which won the SAMEE Aspiring Writers Award and the Scottish Education Curriculum Innovation Award 2022.

Shirley-Anne Brightman

Shirley-Anne Brightman studied languages at the University of Cambridge and holds an MSc in Social Policy from London School of Economics. She has taught in primary schools and English as a Second Language contexts in four countries. She is currently a Leader of Learning at Glasgow City Council’s Improvement Challenge which aims to close the poverty-related attainment gap.

PaperBound Magazine is an online magazine and blog for the young, and the young at heart. We are dedicated to showcasing authors and illustrators for children’s and young adult fiction and we strive to deliver inspiring content, uplifting stories, and top tips for young and aspiring writers yet to burst on to the literary scene.

All our issues are completely free and run by volunteers, however if you would like to support PaperBound and the work we do, you can help us out by buying us a virtual book. We appreciate any support you can give us!

Don’t forget you can read with the latest issues of PaperBound Magazine – completely free – here.

article, Blog, Blog series, Bookshelf, Interview, Interviews, on writing, Writing craft

Interview: A Grave Inheritance by Felicity Epps

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Author Felicity Epps joins the blog to chat about debut ghostly murder mystery, A Grave Inheritance, and the inspiration behind it – as well as share some of her own writing advice.

Could you tell us a little about your novel, A Grave Inheritance, and how you came to write it?

A Grave Inheritance is a gothic murder mystery, delving into seances and spiritualism in Victorian London. My main character Dolores Rain is grieving the loss of her parents and older sister, but when ghostly occurrences point to dark secrets within her house, she teams up with her friends to unveil the truth…and solve a murder!

I had so much fun writing this novel, because I was able to indulge all my favourite themes, from spirits and haunted houses to mysterious apothecaries and mourning fashion. It is very much a reflection of the kind of novels that I like to read, so the inspiration for the novel came from cosy nights reading ghost stories!

The theme of power was always such a key element, because women in the Victorian era lacked independence and the freedom to govern a lot of their own decisions …

From the very first page, Dolores is such a captivating character, who is living in Victorian England amid an outbreak of cholera. Her character is utterly charming, for all her flaws. Did she always appear to you in this way, or did you have to work to craft her character?

Dolores appeared as a fully-fledged character from the start – I think because I indulged her quirks and worries, it all seemed to come naturally! The first scene in the novel was also the first vision that I had for the story: Dolores anxiously declaring that she must be on her “deathbed”, while also mourning how many novels she still has to read.

It felt like such an engaging start for a murder mystery, because Dolores is not set up to be a particularly good investigator – she is overly fearful and really just wants to retreat to her bed. As the novel progresses though, I really enjoyed having her confidence grow, especially once she learns to trust her friends and realises that she can confront the things that frighten her.

This is very much a female-driven story with interesting themes of power, modern medicine, truth, and grief. Were any themes stronger when it came to writing the novel first, and did any evolve as you wrote?

The theme of power was always such a key element, because women in the Victorian era lacked independence and the freedom to govern a lot of their own decisions. Dolores finds herself in a unique position being granted her family’s inheritance, but it still comes with the expectations of London society, as she is pressured to get married.

This theme of power then evolved for me, as I quickly realised that ghosts were not the only danger in the novel – from Dolores’ nerves being dismissed as hysteria to the looming threat of being sent to an asylum, Dolores and her friends, Ada and Violet, struggle to be taken seriously. Eventually, the girls form The Society of Free Spirits, hoping that by embracing seances and spiritualism, they will finally be able to make their voices heard.

Dolores’ vulnerability spoke volumes throughout the book when it came to ghostly happenings surrounding her own grief. Do you think her journey would have been different if she hadn’t spent as much time with the other characters of this book, and in what way?

A symptom of Dolores’ grief is that it has made her world feel claustrophobic. This element definitely strengthened the supernatural aspect of the novel, allowing the haunted house to feel restrictive as well.

I think Dolores would have struggled to overcome her fears if she hadn’t had the outside encouragement of the other characters – Ada does an amazing job of dragging Dolores into society and helping her rediscover the pleasures of life that have been lost in her grief. Meanwhile, the spiritual medium, Violet, helps Dolores find her voice, asking questions that have been ignored by many of the male characters in the book.

I do like to imagine that Dolores always had this resilience within her; she just had to remember it! In the novel, she often feels overwhelmed in social situations, but then finds her strength again in quiet moments. Through all her ghostly experiences, she doesn’t want to give up – and this desire to look for answers pushes her through, even when she wants to shut her front door and ignore the outside world!

This book was recently chosen as a Waterstones Book of the Month! How did it feel to gain that sort of recognition from one of the UK’s top commercial booksellers?

When I used to imagine being published, I’d fantasise about finding my novel on a shelf in a bookshop. So now, to have A Grave Inheritance popping up in Waterstones windows has been absolutely beyond my hopes as a debut author!

I have loved seeing the apothecary bottles, candles and skulls that have appeared in such creative displays across the stores. I’m so grateful to all the amazing booksellers that have championed the novel, and I like to think that A Grave Inheritance has ushered in spooky season early this year!

We love gothic stories here at PaperBound. Do you have any more books you have written that you can tell us about, which might be coming next?

I’m currently working on a sequel to A Grave Inheritance, which will be Book 2 in The Society of Free Spirits series. I’m so excited to share more about Dolores, Ada and Violet, as they embark on further ghostly investigations!

While Dolores’ house can feel gloomy and oppressive, I’m keen to delve more into the world of her friend Ada – exploring the glittering ballrooms of Victorian high society, where dark secrets are kept closely hidden.

What advice do you have for any aspiring writers hoping to get published?

My main advice would be to finish a first draft without worrying about it being perfect. When I first started writing, I wanted each chapter to be just right, before moving onto the next. But now, I focus on letting the characters lead me to the end of the novel and save worrying about plot holes for future revisions.

I find this gives me a better perspective on the project overall, and it’s such an uplifting feeling to have a manuscript in your hands – even a messy first draft!

A Grave Inheritance by Felicity Epps is out now from Hachette (UK)

Felicity Epps

Felicity Epps studied a degree in English Literature before completing a Masters in Eighteenth-Century Studies, where her research focused on female murderers in true crime writing! Felicity finds inspiration in history; researching strange and spooky subjects. She enjoys exploring cemeteries, collecting old books and hunting for ghostly Victorian photographs in antique shops.

Felicity currently lives in Broadstairs, Kent, UK, with her partner, Josh, and their baby daughter, Madeline. When she isn’t writing, Felicity loves going to the beach, knitting colourful jumpers and drinking far too many cups of hot chocolate. A Grave Inheritance is her debut novel.

PaperBound Magazine is an online magazine and blog for the young, and the young at heart. We are dedicated to showcasing authors and illustrators for children’s and young adult fiction and we strive to deliver inspiring content, uplifting stories, and top tips for young and aspiring writers yet to burst on to the literary scene.

All our issues are completely free and run by volunteers, however if you would like to support PaperBound and the work we do, you can help us out by buying us a virtual book. We appreciate any support you can give us!

Don’t forget you can read with the latest issues of PaperBound Magazine – completely free – here.

Blog, Blog series, Bookshelf, Interview, Interviews, on writing, Writing craft

Branford Boase Award 2025: Faber & Faber editor Alice Swan on Glasgow Boys

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Want to know what it takes to be an award-winning editor? Alice Swan is one of the editors for Glasgow Boys, published by Faber & Faber, and written by Margaret McDonald. The novel won this year’s Branford Boase Award 2025.

Find out what the best thing about being an editor might be, and what it was like for Alice on editing the novel with Ama Badu.

Author Margaret McDonald with Faber & Faber editors Alice Swan and Ama Badu
Author Margaret McDonald with Faber & Faber editors Alice Swan and Ama Badu

By Alice Swan

If someone was to ask what the best thing about being an Associate Publisher at Faber is, I’d say this: I have never once been bored. It’s a role that provides so much variety, even within the editing process itself. Every editorial job is different, as is every author’s way of working. I often think that if all my authors were put into a room together they’d all have different gripes! One person would say I always asked for more description, another would say I always cut things down, someone else would say I always wanted plot changes . . . you get the idea . . .

Working on Margaret McDonald’s Glasgow Boys was – joyfully – one of my favourite sort of edits. Often an edit can feel like a puzzle that you’re trying to put together and the desire is to have every piece in place at the end. However, the starting point for each book isn’t always the same. Sometimes it feels like the pieces are out of shape, or that half of them are hiding down the back of the sofa and there’s a question mark over whether they will all be found!

However, with Glasgow Boys, the starting point felt full of hope: looking down on the first draft, all the puzzle pieces were face up and on the table – the perfect story was there for the taking, we just had to rearrange the pieces into the right order. 

To step away from the metaphor for a moment, what I mean is that Margaret’s writing was exquisite, and her characters, Banjo and Finlay, felt fully formed from the first read. Working with my colleague, Ama Badu, our editorial mission was to ensure that the reading experience felt like a real ride – that the tension and the suspense built up to those moments of release.

I hate to say it, but we wanted to make readers cry!

We wanted to take them on an emotional journey, leaving them full of hope and love at the end. Luckily, that’s very much what Margaret wanted too, so we worked comfortably and carefully alongside her to help her shape her story into the best version of itself. 

Every edit is different, but the conditions for a good edit remain the same. It’s our job to be able to look down on the story from above, to see that puzzle and to think about what each book needs. The main thing an edit needs is time. It simply isn’t a job that can be done alongside checking emails or attending meetings.

Faber & Faber editor, Alice Swan

In order to really see a story as a whole, editing can take one, two, three or even more consecutive days of solid, uninterrupted concentration. For me, I need to be offline and in an entirely separate room to my laptop in order to harness the level of deep thinking required.

Editing is a skill I have honed over many years, and with experience comes further clarity about just what a story might need. It’s a skill that needs to be taught, cherished and protected, and above all given the luxury of time. 

Author Margaret McDonald

At the end of the Glasgow Boys edit, which took five months in the end, it really did feel like every piece was where it should be. It felt like a real mic-drop moment – it was done. There wasn’t a single word out of place. And that, for an editor, is a rare and extraordinary feeling.  

Check out guest post with Faber & Faber editor Ama Badu here.

Faber & Faber editor, Ama Badu

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Glasgow Boys is out now and published by Faber & Faber

The Branford Boase Award

Set up in memory of author Henrietta Branford and her editor Wendy Boase, the Branford Boase Award is the only award to recognise the editor as well as the author. Find out more about this year’s award on the website.

PaperBound Magazine is an online magazine for the young, and the young at heart. We are dedicated to showcasing authors and illustrators for children’s and young adult fiction and we strive to deliver inspiring content, uplifting stories, and top tips for young and aspiring writers yet to burst on to the literary scene.

All our issues are completely free and run by volunteers, however if you would like to support PaperBound and the work we do, you can help us out by buying us a virtual book. We appreciate any support you can give us!

Don’t forget you can read with the latest issues of PaperBound Magazine – completely free – here.

Blog, Blog series, Bookshelf, Interview, Interviews, on writing, Writing craft

Branford Boase Award 2025: Ama Badu on editing award-winning novel, Glasgow Boys

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Ama Badu is one of the two award-winning editors for Glasgow Boys, published by Faber & Faber, and written by Margaret McDonald.

Take a glimpse into Ama’s role as editor, and what it was like working on Glasgow Boys with fellow editor Alice Swan, which won the Branford Boase Award 2025.

By Ama Badu

As an editor, you work intimately with a manuscript. The very first time other departments in the publishing process will hear about a book is from you. You are its first champion in-house, carrying the book from loose pages of a manuscript to a finished product. You consider every detail of the project, from the cover and package to the text font and prelims, ensuring that the finished book matches the vision that you and the author had for it. But before you can do any of that, you sit in solitude and read.  

By the time it comes to the very first edit of any story, I’ve already read the manuscript a number of times. I’ve been on a journey with the characters and their world. For me, those first reads are the most precious because I learn something new about them every time. It’s a little like meeting a soon-to-be friend for the first time, and then again, and then again. You see something different on every encounter and they become dearer to you.

What I also observe with each read are my own emotions. How do I feel in this chapter and is this the way the author intends for me to feel? In a book like Glasgow Boys, this is especially important. The emotional experience is a core part of the reading experience and so I’d note down the moments that made my heart stop or tears build up. These observations followed me throughout the editing process.  

I enjoyed working collaboratively with Alice on Glasgow Boys. Editing can be a solitary process. It requires concentrated time and deep thought. Once those thoughts are in place, it then requires conversation. Usually, this is with the author, but in this case, Alice and I had each other to bounce ideas from.

We’d discuss every detail together, the moments that lingered with us the most, which chapters had the most punch, how the structure could be reworked to deliver more of the needed emotional pull. Many questions came out of those meetings. How do we get Banjo and Finlay from this point to that? Is this section working as strongly as it could here, or would it be more impactful there? Do we need to see this or that on the page more?

Raising these questions between ourselves first was such a useful exercise. In those conversations, we could see the parts of the story that resonated with each of us personally and where they differed. There is such an alchemy to editing and when two combine ideas, such magic happens. Alice and I often talk about this process as placing puzzle pieces together. We could see from the very start what image we were working on, we then had to figure out where each piece would fit. We passed ideas back and forth to each other and in doing so, we clarified our vision. 

Faber & Faber editor, Alice Swan

As a junior editor at the time, working alongside Alice and her wealth of experience taught me a great deal. There is much to be said about the training newer editors receive. Editing is a skill, one that is best harnessed through practice. Seeing other experienced editors at work is such a crucial part of the process and cannot be overlooked. There’s a proverb that talks about iron sharpening iron, just as one person sharpens another. Those editorial conversations and observing Alice at work certainly sharpened my skills and made me a more confident editor. 

Once we had our thoughts together, we then shared them with (the author) Margaret. This requires such trust, as it does with every author. Their manuscripts are a labour of love and as editors, our role is to polish them, to make them as strong as they can be for the readers.

Once again, a beautiful alchemy happened here with Margaret. We were working from such a rich tapestry and the three of us had a clear understanding of who Banjo and Finlay were and how they would develop from when we first met them to the last page of the novel. And so we worked, turned over every detail and questioned every word on the page. It was such a harmonious process.

Author Margaret McDonald

A book like Glasgow Boys emphasised the place of grace and care at every point. Not just because of the experiences of our beloved characters but also because of our responsibility to our readers. We had them in mind at every point, being sure to leave them the hope that we all desperately need to see. It was such a joy to see Margaret at work here too. With every draft I marvelled at how far she pushed her story.

The glowing reception Glasgow Boys has received is a testament to that.

Faber & Faber editor, Ama Badu

Guest post with Faber & Faber editor Alice Swan to follow.

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Glasgow Boys is out now and published by Faber & Faber

The Branford Boase Award

Set up in memory of author Henrietta Branford and her editor Wendy Boase, the Branford Boase Award is the only award to recognise the editor as well as the author. Find out more about this year’s award on the website.

PaperBound Magazine is an online magazine for the young, and the young at heart. We are dedicated to showcasing authors and illustrators for children’s and young adult fiction and we strive to deliver inspiring content, uplifting stories, and top tips for young and aspiring writers yet to burst on to the literary scene.

All our issues are completely free and run by volunteers, however if you would like to support PaperBound and the work we do, you can help us out by buying us a virtual book. We appreciate any support you can give us!

Don’t forget you can read with the latest issues of PaperBound Magazine – completely free – here.

article, Blog, Blog series, Bookshelf, Interview, Interviews, on writing, Writing craft

Interview: SF Said on The Children’s Bookshow

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We chatted to author SF Said about The Children’s Bookshow, a wonderful charity dedicated to spreading the love of books through school activities and author/illustrator visits. Here’s what he had to say …

Could you tell us about The Children’s Bookshow, and how you have been involved with it this year? 

As a children’s author, I visit schools up and down the country every week, talking to children about reading and writing and books.  The Children’s Bookshow organises brilliant large-scale events, where children from many schools come together in a fantastic venue to see an author, and then we do follow-up workshops in their classrooms.  Last year, I did this in Coventry, and it was one of the most exciting and rewarding events I’ve ever done, so this year, I’m delighted to be doing it again in Peterborough!

Give children access to the widest possible range of books, let them choose freely for themselves, and then let them read for pure pleasure, with no strings attached.

What’s the best part of being involved with The Children’s Bookshow?

The Children’s Bookshow gives every single child who participates a free copy of a book written by the author they’re seeing.  I think this is beyond wonderful!  Normally when you do events, some kids get a book and some don’t.  But with The Children’s Bookshow, access to books is equal for everyone.  For some children, this will be the first book they’ve ever owned.  And we know from the research that reading for pleasure has the biggest positive impact of any factor on children’s life chances, so you can’t put a price on that – it really is life-changing!

Can you tell our readers about your books and what you enjoy most about being an author?

I write the books that I want to read myself!  My first book, Varjak Paw, was about a cat who dreams of being a great warrior, and learns a secret martial art known only to cats.  My newest book, Tyger, is about a boy, a girl and a tyger who change the world.  With each book I write, I want it to be the very best book it can be, so I do everything I can to make it as good as I can.  That takes me many years, and many drafts.  The thing I enjoy most is hearing responses from readers – it makes all the hard work of writing feel more than worthwhile! 

Did you always enjoy reading as a child? Do you have any tips for how to encourage reluctant readers to enjoy books, or stories?

I was very lucky, because everyone in my family loves books and stories, so I grew up surrounded by them.  Reading always seemed like fun to me, and I think that’s the best tip I can give you: never make reading seem like hard work, or a punishment!  Let it be fun.  Give children access to the widest possible range of books, let them choose freely for themselves, and then let them read for pure pleasure, with no strings attached.  If you do this, even the most reluctant readers might just surprise you – I’ve seen it happen many times!

How can our readers get involved with The Children’s Bookshow in their own area?

There are several great ways to get involved with The Children’s Bookshow this year. Firstly, I’d encourage everyone to check the website to see if the 2025 tour is coming to a venue near you. If it is, why not tell your teacher or school librarian? They might be able to organise a school trip.

Even if you can’t make it to a live event, you can still be part of the experience by exploring The Children’s Bookshow website. There are fantastic photos and write-ups of all the events, so you can see what happens at the shows and discover new books and authors.

The website is also packed with great resources and activities around the featured books – for example, there are some Tyger resources on there now. At the end of the tour there will be a creative competition that is open to everyone to enter too. Last year’s winner got to meet Michael Rosen!

Can you tell us about your writing life – how it started, and what your current projects are?

Like all writers, I’m really just a reader who took one more step.  I wanted to pass on the excitement I felt when I read my favourite books, like Watership Down, or saw my favourite films, like Star Wars.  My current project is very much connected to Tyger.  It’s not a sequel, or a prequel – it’s a parallel story set in another alternate world.  I feel sure it’s going to be my best book yet when it’s done, but it’s not there yet – it takes as long as it takes to make a book as good as you can make it!

What would be your top three writing tips for any young, aspiring writers reading this?

First, forget about writing! Just think of yourself as a reader, and ask yourself, as a reader, if you could have any story to read, what would it be?  Whatever the answer (and there are no wrong answers), I think you should then write that story yourself.  And finally, keep working on it, draft after draft, until it’s as good as you’d want a story to be, as a reader.  That’s really all I do, as a writer – and young readers can do it too, at any age!

Tyger by SF Said is published by David Fickling Books and out now

SF Said

SF Said’s first book, Varjak Paw, won the Nestlé Smarties Prize for Children’s Literature, and was listed by BookTrust as one of the 100 best children’s books of the past 100 years.  The Outlaw Varjak Paw won the BBC Blue Peter Book Of The Year; Phoenix represented the UK on the IBBY International Honour Book List; while his most recent book Tyger won Children’s Book Of The Year at the British Book Awards, Children’s Book Of The Year at The Week Junior Book Awards, and the Foyles Children’s Book Of The Year.

Keep up to date with SF Said on his website.

PaperBound Magazine is an online magazine and blog for the young, and the young at heart. We are dedicated to showcasing authors and illustrators for children’s and young adult fiction and we strive to deliver inspiring content, uplifting stories, and top tips for young and aspiring writers yet to burst on to the literary scene.

All our issues are completely free and run by volunteers, however if you would like to support PaperBound and the work we do, you can help us out by buying us a virtual book. We appreciate any support you can give us!

Don’t forget you can read with the latest issues of PaperBound Magazine – completely free – here.

Blog, Blog series, Bookshelf, Interview, Interviews, on writing, Writing craft

Branford Boase Award 2025: Amie Jordan on working with Chicken House editor Rachel Leyshon for shortlisted novel, All the Hidden Monsters

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Amie Jordan is one of six authors on the shortlist for the 2025 Branford Boase Award. The Branford Boase Award is shared with the book’s editor and Amie describes how she and her editor Rachel Leyshon of Chicken House worked together on All The Hidden Monsters and some of the particular challenges they overcame.

By Amie Jordan

I’m often asked how I wrote on All The Hidden Monsters and the honest truth is that it was never meant to be a real book when I started it. It actually just started out as a bit of writing practice. It was a different tense, different genre, different style to the other Big Project I’d been focused on for so long. But I’d just lost all sense of it, of myself, and knew I needed to take a step back. I only ever intended to step away for a while, work on something so totally different that when I went back, I’d have a fresh mind and fresh eyes to refocus myself. And then… I just never left Downside.

I met my characters Sage, Oren and P. And the rest, as they say, was history.

But the rest, as I say, would not have been possible without Rachel Leyshon, my editor at Chicken House.

Chicken House editor, Rachel Leyshon

See, my biggest problem is that I can’t stop talking. I consider it quite a fun fact (my mother less so) that every school report I ever received from nursery to college said ‘Amie talks too much and distracts others’ – my recent diagnosis of ADHD explains a lot – and this very clearly translates into my writing. My ability to stick to a wordcount in a first draft is truly laughable.

Then if we add my OCD into the mix (I know, almost a whole neurodivergent set!) know that I’m constantly compelled to over explain in obsessive and totally unnecessary detail. And if this is a blogpost about honesty I might as well also note that I don’t plot or write in numerical chapter order either. That’s because my OCD thrives off lists, and plotting chapters out is simply tantamount to writing down a big ol’ list, right? And once a list is written it’s set in stone.

The OCD really struggles to change it up. Naturally, this can make the editing process later on pretty tricky to deal with! So anyway, I just find that if I’m not writing in a chapter linear/list order, it somehow all feels easier to move around later. If anyone is interested to know, the first scene I wrote in ATHM eventually settled in as part of chapter thirty-six.

Does any of that writing process make sense?

No, it doesn’t.

But the point I’m trying to make is that despite all that, despite the fact I know it’s not ideal but can’t help it anyway, Rachel didn’t instantly balk. Between all the initial chaos she was still able to see the vision, sift through and highlight what worked, what was unnecessary over complication, and work to understand exactly what I was trying to achieve, guiding me there in the parts I wasn’t quite pulling it off.

I’m totally aware that some days it would’ve been so much easier to just tell me what to do, but she never did. She has the patience of a saint and is such an inspiration and an encouragement to someone like me specifically, knowing the traits I’ve always let overwhelm and hold me back have not mattered. Proof that people like me can make it with the right editor at the helm.

So my advice to any aspiring writers, but especially to those that see themselves reflected in me, would be this: it’s actually fine not to be perfect right away. It’s fine to be flawed. And for God’s sake, don’t torture yourself over it. If working with Rachel has taught me anything, it’s that if you truly have that spark of magic to begin with then it’s always going to be in there somewhere, and the right people will be able to see it. The very best of them will make you thrive.

I wasted so many years not having the self-belief or the confidence in my own work, knowing that I was too chaotic to ever be the shiny, impossibly perfect writer I thought I had to be from the start if I ever wanted to succeed in this childhood dream of being an author. I wish I’d been braver sooner.

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All the Hidden Monsters is out now and published by Chicken House.

Amie Jordan

Amie Jordan is from Salford and studied Film and Media at Manchester Metropolitan University. When she isn’t writing she spends her time knitting, having provided bespoke pieces for the costume departments of film, TV and theatre. All the Lost Souls, the sequel to All the Hidden Monsters, is out now!

The Branford Boase Award

Set up in memory of author Henrietta Branford and her editor Wendy Boase, the Branford Boase Award is the only award to recognise the editor as well as the author. Find out more about this year’s shortlisted books on the website. The winner will be announced on Wednesday 9 July.

PaperBound Magazine is an online magazine for the young, and the young at heart. We are dedicated to showcasing authors and illustrators for children’s and young adult fiction and we strive to deliver inspiring content, uplifting stories, and top tips for young and aspiring writers yet to burst on to the literary scene.

All our issues are completely free and run by volunteers, however if you would like to support PaperBound and the work we do, you can help us out by buying us a virtual book. We appreciate any support you can give us!

Don’t forget you can read with the latest issues of PaperBound Magazine – completely free – here.