Congratulations on being Shortlisted for the Carnegie prize, who told you and what was your immediate response when you found out? (we can star swears if it was a swear!)

Haha, it was an email from Charlie Sheppard who is the fabulous publishing director at Andersen Press. I worked with Charlie on Birdie, so it was extra special getting the email….it took me a couple of reads for it to sink in, then I burst into tears!!! Amazingly, there was no swearing. I just stared at a wall for a long time!!!😂

Birdie is an incredibly heartfelt story, what do you hope young readers take from it most?

Apart from them enjoying the journey and learning more about the history of life in 1952, I’d like the reader to really connect through empathy with Birdie, and see life through her eyes, realising we are all different, but that is something to celebrate.

As a story based many decades ago it really feels like you’re there. What sort of research did you need to do prior to and during writing Birdie?

I grew up in Yorkshire, and a lot of things weren’t so different to my childhood and life in 1952!! Time stands still in the Dales! However, I made sure everything was authentic and I spoke to people and read and researched the homes for brown babies. I love research and always find out more than I need to put in, but it was important and I felt a responsibility to get the facts correct whether that be about the homes or the pit ponies which were a part of my own childhood.

You’ve written a few books featuring horses. Difficult I know but what three words would you use to describe the beauty of horses and their relationships with humans?

Magical, peaceful, privileged (humans are to be in the company of horses)

Birdie is the kind of story that really sticks with a reader long after they have turned the final page. What’s one book you read as a child or young adult that has stayed with you into adulthood?

It’s a cliché, but where animals are concerned, it was Black Beauty. It was such a powerful piece of literature, in the sense it was Anna’s only book and she wrote it to make the world change the way they treated horses. It stays with me because it shows how important books are to connect through storytelling.

What is the Best Bit and the Worst Bit about writing a book. And what is one Random Rest bit (which has no positive or negative assigned to it rather it is an interesting piece of information).

The best bit is the idea and the crackle of excitement of hearing the voices of characters wanting you to tell their story.

The worst bit is the impatience of wanting to finish it and show it to people.

I think the most random piece of info, and I think many authors have this, but the moment you start writing a book, almost straightaway, another idea for a story pops into your mind which you’re excited by but you know you can’t focus on that until you’ve finished the next fifty odd thousand words!

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Many thanks to JP for answering our questions and a huge congratulations on Birdie being shortlisted for the 2026 Carnegie Award for Writing.  The Winner and the Shadowers’ Choice Winner will be announced on June 23rd.  You can find out more about Birdie in our Class Reads Summer promo or by using the link below.