CLARE MORRALL is one of our regular judges and a prolific readers. She was Booker shortlisted in 2003 and was awarded an honouree doctor of letters (DLitt) by the University of Birmingham.
Morrall’s debut novel, Astonishing Splashes of Colour, was short listed for the MAN Booker Prize. Morrall was also shortlisted for British Newcomer of the Year 2003. Her fourth novel, The Man who Disappeared, was selected for the TV Book Club 2010. In 2012 The Roundabout Man was released to critical acclaim.
Her novels have been translated into many languages across the world.
Clare Morralls novels are:
The Last of the Greenwoods (2018)
When the Floods Came (2016)
After the Bombing (2014)
The Roundabout Man (2012)
The Man Who Disappeared (2010)
The Language of Others (2008)
Natural Flights of the Human Mind (2006)
Astonishing Splashes of Colour (2003)
Morrall’s debut novel, Astonishing Splashes of Colour, was short listed for the MAN Booker Prize. Morrall was also shortlisted for British Newcomer of the Year 2003. Her fourth novel, The Man who Disappeared, was selected for the TV Book Club 2010. In 2012 The Roundabout Man was released to critical acclaim.
Her novels have been translated into many languages across the world.
Clare Morralls novels are:
The Last of the Greenwoods (2018)
When the Floods Came (2016)
After the Bombing (2014)
The Roundabout Man (2012)
The Man Who Disappeared (2010)
The Language of Others (2008)
Natural Flights of the Human Mind (2006)
Astonishing Splashes of Colour (2003)
Narinder Dhami was born in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, and attended Wolverhampton Girls’ High School.
After obtaining an English degree at the University of Birmingham she started teaching in a comprehensive school in Essex, before moving to a primary school in the east end of London. Over the years she started writing stories again. One of her early successes was winning second prize in a Mills and Boon competition. Her prize was a word processor, an Amstrad 9152!
She has now been writing full-time for around nineteen years and has had more than 300 books published, including the novelization of the 2002 movie ‘Bend It Like Beckham’, ‘13 Hours’, ‘Bang, Bang, You’re Dead’, and the ‘Bindi Babes’ series. She's also written around eighty of the multi-million-selling ‘Rainbow Magic’ books for younger children, under the shared pseudonym of Daisy Meadows, as well as many fiction and non-fiction texts for educational publishers like OUP and Collins. Dhami has also taught creative writing at many venues including the Arvon centres at Lumb Bank and Hurst House, and the Cheltenham Festival.
The latest books are a re-telling of ‘Persuasion’ for the Awesomely Austen series and a short story for ‘New Class at Malory Towers’, based on Enid Blyton’s original characters.
After obtaining an English degree at the University of Birmingham she started teaching in a comprehensive school in Essex, before moving to a primary school in the east end of London. Over the years she started writing stories again. One of her early successes was winning second prize in a Mills and Boon competition. Her prize was a word processor, an Amstrad 9152!
She has now been writing full-time for around nineteen years and has had more than 300 books published, including the novelization of the 2002 movie ‘Bend It Like Beckham’, ‘13 Hours’, ‘Bang, Bang, You’re Dead’, and the ‘Bindi Babes’ series. She's also written around eighty of the multi-million-selling ‘Rainbow Magic’ books for younger children, under the shared pseudonym of Daisy Meadows, as well as many fiction and non-fiction texts for educational publishers like OUP and Collins. Dhami has also taught creative writing at many venues including the Arvon centres at Lumb Bank and Hurst House, and the Cheltenham Festival.
The latest books are a re-telling of ‘Persuasion’ for the Awesomely Austen series and a short story for ‘New Class at Malory Towers’, based on Enid Blyton’s original characters.
Our 2020 Judges
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Narinder Dhami was born in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, and attended Wolverhampton Girls’ High School.
After obtaining an English degree at the University of Birmingham she started teaching in a comprehensive school in Essex, before moving to a primary school in the east end of London. Over the years she started writing stories again. One of her early successes was winning second prize in a Mills and Boon competition. Her prize was a word processor, an Amstrad 9152! She has now been writing full-time for around nineteen years and has had more than 300 books published, including the novelization of the 2002 movie ‘Bend It Like Beckham’, ‘13 Hours’, ‘Bang, Bang, You’re Dead’, and the ‘Bindi Babes’ series. She's also written around eighty of the multi-million-selling ‘Rainbow Magic’ books for younger children, under the shared pseudonym of Daisy Meadows, as well as many fiction and non-fiction texts for educational publishers like OUP and Collins. Dhami has also taught creative writing at many venues including the Arvon centres at Lumb Bank and Hurst House, and the Cheltenham Festival. The latest books are a re-telling of ‘Persuasion’ for the Awesomely Austen series and a short story for ‘New Class at Malory Towers’, based on Enid Blyton’s original characters. |
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Paul McDonald judged our first ever short story competition and edited the subsequent anthology entitled, The Tipping Point. He set the standard for what was to follow in the years after in which the quality only ever increased.
He taught modern literature at the University of Wolverhampton for twenty five years, heading its creative writing programme for over a decade. He is an award winning author of eighteen books, including three novels and three collections of poetry. His most recent book, Lydia Davis: A Study, was published in 2019. |
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Kerry Hadley-Pryce was born in the Black Country. She worked nights in a Wolverhampton petrol station before becoming a secondary school teacher. She wrote her first novel, The Black Country, (published by Salt publishing in 2015) whilst studying for an MA in Creative Writing at the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University, for which she gained a distinction and was awarded the Michael Schmidt Prize for Outstanding Achievement 2013–14. Her second novel, Gamble, published by Salt Publishing in 2018, was shortlisted for The Encore Award 2019. She has had several short stories published in various anthologies. She is currently a PhD student researching Psychogeography and Black Country Writing and is involved in research into memory. She is working on her third novel. She was recently appointed the first woman editor of The Blackcountryman magazine.
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