Geraldine McCaughrean
GERALDINE McCAUGHREAN has written over 180 books and plays and been published in 50 countries, she writes for every age of reader – picture books, retellings, short stories, early readers, YA and adult.
Though she trained as a teacher, she opted instead for working as a secretary in television then a sub-editor in part-work publishing before full-time writing stole her away from doing a ‘proper job’.
Shortlisted eight times for The Carnegie Medal, she won it once in 1989 and again last year with Where the World Ends. Other awards include the Whitbread/Beefeater/Costa (three times), the Smarties, Guardian and Blue Peter. She won the prestigious US Printz award for The White Darkness. In 2005 she won a competition to write the ‘authorised’ sequel to James Barrie’s Peter Pan, and Peter Pan in Scarlet sold world wide.
Her retellings include many myths, legends and adaptations of inaccessible classics such as Moby Dick, Gilgamesh, A Pilgrim's Progress and The Fairy Queen. She has also written plays for schools, theatre and radio. Despite the name, she is neither Scottish nor Irish but writes under her married name. “I don’t blame my husband – he couldn’t help it, bless – but nobody can pronounce McCaughrean, nobody can remember it or spell it, and it doesn’t fit on a book spine.”
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