NORTHERN HIGHLIGHT HAZEL HOLMES, UCLan Publishing     Tell us about your role and what this involves.  We're a very small team so, essentially it's a bit of everything, but mainly commissioning editor and project management. I also work closely with the academic team to ensure our business is fully integrated into the teaching on our MA and BA Publishing courses, as well opening up opportunities right across UCLan. It's a very exciting job at the moment!   How has the children's/YA offering developed at UCLan over the years,  and what have been the highlights?   I think the national support we received with our first commercial YA title, Cold Bath Street , really gave us the platform to grow our list and expand from YA to middle grade and non-fiction. It opened up discussions with authors, illustrators and agents who like what we do and want to be a part of it. Thanks to the pool of talent on campus we're also able to explore audio an...

 SPECIAL GUEST NORTHERN HIGHLIGHT Heather Lacey, Inclusive Minds Co-director Tell us a bit about your role as a Director of Inclusive Minds  I have been working with Inclusive Minds (IM) for a while now: initially as an Inclusion Ambassador, but more recently - when establishing ourselves as a community interest company - I took up a role as co-director. I feel so honoured to be in this position and I must admit, it’s been a bit of a whirlwind since we set up in February, but I feel truly privileged that I have the opportunity to shape IM, and further develop our work within the industry. IM exists to ensure that every child and young person can see themselves authentically represented in their books. As a young, disabled, Northern girl, I never found characters like myself within the pages of my books. My world didn’t seem ‘important’ enough to reflect, and it was only when I attended university to read English that I really recognised this as an issue across the industry as ...

NORTHERN HIGHLIGHT ANNA DOHERTY 1. Why did you become an illustrator? When I was growing up, I loved drawing imaginary tree houses and adventures, scenes from books I read or things around me in the house. Plus I read a lot when I was a kid so I think it was just a natural process! I came into children’s books from the illustration side. I went to art school without really deciding what I wanted to specialise in but once I realised children’s books could be a career, I was set on it. 2. Tell us about where you live. I live in Edinburgh in an old converted factory. We have skylights in two rooms so it sounds really cosy when it rains. It’s near the sea and I can’t imagine not living near the sea. I grew up in Edinburgh then moved to study Illustration in Dundee and Children’s Book Illustration in Cambridge. I love places that have old buildings and water. 3. Where do you work? I have a little studio in the spare bedroom in our flat. I have a desk, a l...

NORTHERN HIGHLIGHT Photo credit:  Linda Pelling Photography JON MAYHEW 1. Why did you become a writer? I’ve always loved reading and writing stories since I was a teenager but I became a writer by accident. Being passionate about literacy, I ended up teaching English in a High School. I used to write stories for my pupils. Then, one day, I was training for the London Marathon and I broke my ankle, quite spectacularly. Finding myself immobilised, I took to writing a story and that story became Mortlock, my first spooky, Victorian children’s book.  Cover illustration by  Robin Boyden Published by Bloomsbury Children's Books 2. Tell us about where you live. I live on the Wirral. It’s a misty, marshy peninsula stuck between North Wales and Liverpool. We have the best of all worlds; mountains and countryside to the left of us, city life and excitement to the right. I’ve always lived on the Wirral and have deep roots here. 3. Where do you ...

SPECIAL GUEST NORTHERN HIGHLIGHT Cheryl Pridgeon & Margaret Duff, Read Manchester Can you tell us about Read Manchester and your partnership with Manchester City Council  and the National Literacy Trust? Read Manchester is a partnership campaign led by Manchester City Council and The National  Literacy Trust to encourage reading for pleasure in Manchester. We know that reading has such  positive benefits for all ages, so our campaign has many different strands to appeal across the  generations. We started in 2016 and since then have delivered a whole range of programmes,  events and initiatives: - Our ‘Take 10’ message runs throughout all of our campaigns - reading for as little as 10  minutes a day can make a difference to a child’s future outcomes as well as having a positive  impact on wellbeing (whatever your age) - Bee Ready, Bee a Reader transition read for 7,300 Year 6 pupils. This year saw all primary  school leavers being gifted th...

Northern Highlight   Andrew Sharp 1. Why did you want to work in the children's book industry? I didn’t set out to be in children’s publishing. Early in my career I had to move companies several times in a bid to earn enough to be able to afford to live in London. That process led me to Hodder Children’s Books where I fell in love with the books. 2. Tell us about where you live. I moved to Perth with my family in July 2019. It was a bit of a shock for the boys as they are Londoners born and bred but they have adapted really quickly, as children tend to do. Perth is great. Its tag ‘Small city, big personality’ suits it well. It is small enough to feel intimate, big enough to have the amenities you would expect from a larger city. It has a stunning setting, straddling the mighty river Tay. Edinburgh and Glasgow are each an hour away, the Highlands are a short hop north so it’s the perfect location for ex-Londoners who love burning energy in city...

SPECIAL GUEST NORTHERN HIGHLIGHT    Elizabeth Beck & Beth Barker, SYP North Can you tell us about SYP and your work in the North? The Society of Young Publishers is a nationwide group which seeks to make publishing a more accessible industry. It is open to anyone and everyone and brings publishing hopefuls together to network, discuss their futures and learn the tricks of the trade from publishing experts. In our North division, we’re particularly interested in encouraging regional diversity in publishing as a very small percentage of northerners make up the population of the industry.     What were your latest events? We recently held the first in our series of Northern Powerhouse events on new publishing in the North, introducing our audiences to Alice Murphy-Pyle at Harper North and Emma Layfield at Hachette Children’s Group. There was a lot of excitement for this digital panel and we had viewers tuning in from all over the North of England, as well as ...