Samantha Pope

Sam Pope is a writer, editor, children's librarian and teacher based in Oxford. She writes fiction and non-fiction for both adults and children, and her debut YA novel, The Haunting of Lindy Pennyworth, was published in October 2021 by UCLan. It was subsequently listed as one of Blackwell's YA horror books of 2021. Her short story, entitled 'One-Way Window', is included in Tales of the Supernatural, published by Otranto House. Another of her short stories, 'La Tricoteuse', won best tale in TheatreCloud's touring production of A Tale of Two Cities: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnkow_RgFW0

Sam's novel 'Keeping Mum' was also shortlisted for Trapeze Books’ and Gingerbread’s 1 in 4 novel competition - a dramedy about a single family. She has also been shortlisted for two national short-story competitions for children: the first, a children's short story set in World War II, and the second a children's comedy based on a fairy-tale mash-up. She and her daughter started the successful Childtastic Books blog, which reviews children's books and which was featured in both The Sunday Times and the Telegraph on Saturday.

In addition to writing fiction, Sam uses her knowledge of working in primary education to writes non-fiction teaching materials for companies such as Scholastic, and has also run workshops and sessions on creative writing, generally, and ghost stories in particular. She is currently working on a variety of projects, including a biography of a female Victorian poet and a ghost story set in the Arctic.