Barbara Mitchelhill
About Author
Barbara Mitchelhill trained as a teacher and has taught in secondary and junior schools. She is now a part-time editor for an education publisher and writes in her spare time. She has written for many educational publishers.
Interview
I began my writing career while my children were very young and I was still teaching. I first wrote for BBC children's TV and, after that, for Educational Publishers - mainly fiction for early readers. I gave up teaching as my time was more and more taken up with writing.
I began to write short novels for newly confident reader published by Andersen Press (part of Penguin Random House) and then novels for 9 - 13 year olds. My books have won many awards, especially my historical novels which have all been nominated for the Historical Association's Young Quills Award, winning it twice.
I love music and I'm a very keen theatre goer. I read a lot, love walking and doing family things with my daughters and their families.
When I first gave up teaching, I was anxious that I would miss the children - but I found that I could still meet many children by visiting schools all over the country. This I really enjoy and count myself lucky that I have the best of both worlds - writing and meeting with children.
