Felicity Kenvyn[ citation needed ] (known as Lissa Evans) is a British television director, producer, novelist and children's author. [1]
After qualifying as a doctor in 1983, Evans worked in medicine in Newcastle for four years before a brief period in stand-up, beginning with an ensemble review called "Wire Less Wireless" which played in some of the pubs in Newcastle. Evans joined BBC Radio where she was a producer of comedy programmes before migrating to television. She has produced and/or directed Father Ted (for which she won a BAFTA for best comedy), Room 101 , The Kumars at No. 42 , TV Heaven, Telly Hell , Crossing the Floor (for which she won an Emmy for best drama) and Have I Got News For You . She also served as voice director for the British-Canadian children's television series Don't Eat the Neighbours .
Evans has written six novels for adults: Spencer's List, Odd One Out, Their Finest Hour and a Half (now filmed as Their Finest [2] ), Crooked Heart (which with Their Finest Hour and a Half was long-listed for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction), Old Baggage, [3] and V for Victory.
For children, she has written Small Change For Stuart, shortlisted for the 2011 Costa Award for Children's fiction, the 2012 Carnegie Medal, and the 2012 Branford Boase Award. [4] Small Change for Stuart was published in the United States as Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms, and the sequel, Big Change for Stuart (Horten's Incredible Illusions in the U.S.) was published in 2012. Another book for children, Wed Wabbit, was published in 2017 and shortlisted for the 2017 Costa Book Awards and the 2018 Carnegie Medal.
For adults
For children
The Carnegie Medal for Writing, established in 1936, is a British literary award that annually recognises one outstanding new English-language book for children or young adults. It is conferred upon the author by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), who calls it "the UK's oldest and most prestigious book award for children's writing". CILIP is currently partnered with the audio technology company Yoto in connection with the award.
Dame Penelope Margaret Lively is a British writer of fiction for both children and adults. Lively has won both the Booker Prize and the Carnegie Medal for British children's books.
Emma Donoghue is an Irish-Canadian novelist, screenwriter, playwright and literary historian. Her 2010 novel Room was a finalist for the Booker Prize and an international best-seller. Donoghue's 1995 novel Hood won the Stonewall Book Award and Slammerkin (2000) won the Ferro-Grumley Award for Lesbian Fiction. She is a 2011 recipient of the Alex Awards. Room was adapted by Donoghue into a film of the same name. For this, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Nina Mary Bawden CBE, FRSL, JP was an English novelist and children's writer. She was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1987 and the Lost Man Booker Prize in 2010. She was a recipient of the Golden PEN Award.
David Almond is a British author who has written many novels for children and young adults from 1998, each one receiving critical acclaim.
The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in UK and Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first sponsor, the Whitbread company, then a brewery and owner of pub-restaurant chains, it was renamed when Costa Coffee, then a subsidiary of Whitbread, took over sponsorship. The companion Costa Short Story Award was established in 2012. Costa Coffee was purchased by the Coca-Cola Company in 2018. The awards were abruptly terminated in 2022.
Lauren Margot Peachy Child is an English children's author and illustrator. She is best known for the Charlie and Lola picture book series and other book series. Her influences include E. H. Shepard, Quentin Blake, Carl Larsson, and Ludwig Bemelmans.
Anne Teresa Enright is an Irish writer. The first Laureate for Irish Fiction (2015–2018) and winner of the Man Booker Prize (2007), she has published eight novels, many short stories, and a non-fiction work called Making Babies: Stumbling into Motherhood, about the birth of her two children. Her essays on literary themes have appeared in the London Review of Books and The New York Review of Books, and she writes for the books pages of The Irish Times and The Guardian. Her fiction explores themes such as family, love, identity and motherhood.
Elizabeth Laird is a British writer of children's fiction and travel. She is also known for the large body of folktales which she collected from the regions of Ethiopia. Her books have been translated into at least twenty languages.
Vicki Pepperdine is an English comedy actress and writer. She was nominated for two BAFTA TV Awards for co-writing the BBC sitcom Getting On (2009–12), and was also nominated for a British Comedy Award for her portrayal of Pippa Moore in the series.
Katharine Mary Saunders was an English writer, actress and journalist. She won the Betty Trask Award and the Costa Children's Book Award and was twice shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.
Goggle-Eyes, or My War with Goggle-Eyes in the US, is a children's novel by Anne Fine, published by Hamilton in 1989. It features a girl who thinks she hates her mother's boyfriend. In the frame story, set in a Scottish day school, that girl Kitty tells her friend Helen about hating her mother's boyfriend.
Carol Hedges is a British author of books for children, young adults and adults. Her novel Jigsaw, about a teenager's suicide, was shortlisted for the Angus Book Award and nominated for the Carnegie Medal in 2001. Her most recent works are the Spy Girl series for teenagers and the Diamonds & Dust adult mystery series, published by Crooked Cat and featuring the Victorian detectives Leo Stride and Jack Cully.
Andy Mulligan is a French writer best known for young adult fiction. His work is strongly influenced by his experiences working as a volunteer in Calcutta, India, and as an English and drama teacher in Brazil, Vietnam, the Philippines, and the UK. He has been married to UK television presenter Anne Robinson since their elopement in 2015.
Candy Gourlay is a Filipino journalist and author based in the United Kingdom whose debut novel Tall Story (2010) was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.
Monica McInerney is a best-selling Australian-born, Dublin-based writer. In 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2019 McInerney was voted into the top ten of Booktopia's 'Australia's Favourite Novelist' poll. Her 13th novel, 'The Godmothers', was released in 2020. Her first children's book 'Marcie Gill and the Caravan Park Cat' was published in 2021. Her books have been published worldwide and in more than a dozen languages.
Their Finest is a 2016 British war comedy-drama film, directed by Lone Scherfig, written by Gaby Chiappe, and based on the 2009 novel Their Finest Hour and a Half by Lissa Evans. The film stars Gemma Arterton, Sam Claflin, Bill Nighy, Jack Huston, Jake Lacy, Richard E. Grant, Henry Goodman, Rachael Stirling, Eddie Marsan, Helen McCrory, and Claudia Jessie. It tells the story of a British Ministry of Information film team making a morale-boosting film about the Dunkirk evacuation during the Battle of Britain and the London Blitz.
Sarah Crossan is an Irish author. She is best known for her books for young adults, including Apple and Rain and One, for which she has won several awards.
Locksmith Animation is an independent computer animation feature film studio owned by Sister Group and based in London, England and Los Angeles, California. Locksmith is best known for producing and developing independent computer-animated feature films for kids and adults of all ages.
Zana Fraillon is an Australian writer of fiction for children and young adults based in Melbourne, Australia. Fraillon is known for allowing young readers to examine human rights abuses within fiction and in 2017 she won an Amnesty CILIP Honour for her book The Bone Sparrow which highlights the plight of the Rohingya people. The Bone Sparrow has been translated to stage and is set to premier in the York Theatre Royal, England, from 25 February 2022.