Claire Selby

Claire Selby is best known for writing courses and stories to teach English as a foreign language to children. As a graduate in Modern Languages from Oxford University, she wanted to share the gift of communication through new languages, especially for children.

She has written preschool English courses for Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press and Yellow House English SA. Primary courses include Phonics Wonderland and Phonics Superland for Chinese publisher FLTRP (Foreign Languages Teaching and Research Press), as well as Little Red Dragon stories, songs and musical theatre scripts for Collins.

Her methodology, which she calls the Spiral Language System, is outlined in her Guide for teachers while her Guide for Parents helps families with tips on helping their children become bilingual with English by starting early.

Now based in the Home Counties, she lived outside the UK for over 13 years and has travelled widely with her work.

While living in Poland, she had the extraordinary adventure of building a house in a rural village and found immense pleasure in learning about the traditions and culture. The story of this experience is described in her book Waking up in Warsaw.

An award-winning best-selling author, she has prizes from Russia, Poland and the English Speaking Union in the UK, as well as finalist works for the British Council ELTons (x3) and MipJunior at Cannes (children's animation).

She had the great honour of receiving a Song-Writing Award from the Beijing Olympic Committee for her international song for children, China-World, and was one of ten international Friends of the Games, featuring in a promotional film for the Olympics (2008).