Yvonne Coppard

In children's fiction, Yvonne Coppard is perhaps best known for the gritty Carnegie nominated Bully, which was adapted for radio by the BBC and for the stage (dir. John Godber). She also writes humorous novels, notably the award-winning Not Dressed Like That, You Don’t! which places the diary of a teenage girl and her mother side by side.

Yvonne is an experienced creative writing tutor and co-wrote, with Linda Newbery, the Writers' and Artists' guide for would-be authors: Writing Children's Fiction (Bloomsbury, 2013). She is currently a Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow and a writer in residence with several organisations, promoting good writing in the workplace.

In addition to children's fiction, Yvonne writes for adults, both fiction and non-fiction, but she has two other names for those titles, in order to avoid confusion (at least for the reader - Yvonne herself is often confused about who she is). She likes bridges, historic buildings and anything to do with the sky; she doesn't like the colour pink, can't see the point of pandas and, while largely a tolerant person, has been known to kill wasps.

Check out www.yvonnecoppard.co.uk or follow her on Twitter to find out more than you should probably want to know.