Signing copies of A Dangerous Game of Football.

About the Author

As a writer, the questions I am always being asked are: how did you become a writer and where do your ideas come from. I wasn’t particularly interested in writing until I started travelling and I began by writing an article for a magazine and submitting it. I was paid £25 which I thought amazing.
So I wrote some more articles. But, it was not until my daughter took up competitive swimming and I found myself with time on my hands while she trained, that I wrote my first story. However, it wasn’t until 2006 that Scruffy came along. This is a very special book because all the illustrations are by schoolchildren. Scruffy came from the Bristol Dogs Home and was bouncy sort of dog, tremendously loving and loyal, and very naughty. He had so many adventures, I promised my family I would write them down.
So I did. And fortunately I can’t draw.

And my ideas? I spent the whole of my young life either in the Americas or Europe and there is something from my adventures in every one of my books. For instance, A Dangerous Game of Football, the camel, Bud, came from the Sudan. I was visiting a camel market in Omdurman and there was a wood carver. I bought four animals, including a camel. The wood carver became Jacob and the wooden statue of the camel – Bud. My most outrageous and outspoken character yet. In The Bird Children, one of my ideas came from Egypt, where I met a magic man who made cotton wool burst into flame in my hand.

Besides writing stories, I spend a great deal of time in Waterstones chatting to people and visiting primary and secondary schools.

As part of her commitment to education, Barbara has been visiting both primary and secondary schools since 2007 and her visited are hugely successful. Aiming both the language and content of her talk to the age of the class, Barbara is happy to entertain the youngest in the school with tales of Scruffy and read: A Serious Case of Chicken-it which she wrote especially for five and six year-olds. For years 3 – 6, thanks to Tanner and Butler who have supplied a suitcase full of samples, Barbara takes the children on an exciting journey from the printing press to modern day, before moving onto favourite authors.

In secondary schools Barbara often entertains year groups with a light-hearted dip into her extraordinary career, followed by writers and their books which have changed history. She also offers creative workshops, a wonderful opportunity for students to learn a little about the writing process and the skills needed before you start to write a book.

About the Illustrators