Ally Kennen

Ally Kennen comes from a proud lineage of bare-knuckle boxers, country vicars and French aristocracy. 

She grew up in an isolated farm on Exmoor, with no flushing toilet, dead tadpoles in the taps, and annual rat infestations.  The farm was a foster home to many children and teenagers. Ally has worked as a classroom assistant, nursery nurse, museum guard and archaeologist. She is also a professional singer.

Ally lives in Somerset with her husband, small daughter, smaller son and baby four chickens and a curmudgeonly cat. No woman has ever beaten Ally in an arm wrestle.

 

In Her Own Words:

“I grew up on a small organic farm on Exmoor. My parents still farm cows, pigs, sheep, chickens, turkeys and ducks. I have one brother. My parents fostered children for many years, from when I was about three or four till I was thirteen. They started again when I was eighteen and fostered for another five or six years.

"When I was young, we farmed dairy cows, which make a lot of mess. There is half a mile of muddy road up to the school bus stop. In school assemblies I would usually leave a small pile of dried mud in my place, which I had picked off my shoes. In winter, my school uniform smelled of smoke because it had dried over the fire. We had an outdoor loo, called an earth closet, which had no flush. You had to do what you did, then cover it up with sawdust. When I was eight, we got a flushing loo which I thought was deeply sophisticated (though once I did fall in the septic tank!).

"There were no shops, pubs or buses (except the school bus) and hardly any people. As a child, I spent a lot of time on my own, reading, playing in the mud, building dams and messing around the farm. I was always scruffy and sadly I still am! At school I liked writing stories and liked the idea of being an author, but I also wanted to be a runner, an archaeologist and a naturalist.”

---

Featured Books, with extracts by Ally Kennen

Bullet Boys
Ally Kennen
An outstanding book for all teen readers, Bullet Boys is a gripping, desperate story about boys, girls, guns and choices. Gentle Alex, son of a gamekeeper, is a crack shot. He knows all about guns; their danger and their value....
Featured in: 14+ readers | Books of the Month | Ebooks
Format: Paperback - Released: 05/01/2012
Info   Extract   Wishlist   Compare Price   Buy

Quarry
Ally Kennen
When he receives anonymous texts challenging him to bizarre dares, Scrappy's sure one of his mates is having a laugh. Anyway, his confusing teenage life just got more exciting. But the unknown sender cannot be a friend - and the challenges become increasingly...
Featured in: 11+ readers | 14+ readers | Ebooks
Format: Paperback - Released: 07/02/2011
Info   Extract   Wishlist   Compare Price   Buy

Sparks
Ally Kennen
The best kind of headlong, page turning adventure, Sparks races along at breakneck speed as three children set abut the audacious task of fulfilling their grandfather’s dreams by giving him a Viking funeral! Hilariously funny and also full of deeply...
Featured in: 7+ readers | 9+ readers | Books of the Month
Format: Paperback - Released: 05/04/2010
Info   Extract   Wishlist   Compare Price   Buy

Bedlam
Ally Kennen
Ally Kennen's observations of teenage life, along with the themes of dysfunctional families and the people who fall between the gaps in society, are what define her as one of the best authors writing for young people. In Bedlam Ally...
Featured in: 11+ readers | 14+ readers | Ebooks
Format: Paperback - Released: 05/01/2009
Info   Extract   Wishlist   Compare Price   Buy

Berserk
Ally Kennen
Ally Kennen’s Beast was one of the best debuts of last year and has been lauded with praise and sold in large numbers as well and we feel at Lovereading we helped spread that word-of-mouth through earmarking it early on...
Featured in: 14+ readers | Ebooks
Format: Paperback - Released: 07/05/2007
Info   Extract   Wishlist   Compare Price   Buy

Beast
Ally Kennen
Shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award 2007. What the judges’ said: Admired hugely its spare prose and confident storytelling’ Teenagers, particularly boys will empathise completely with the hero in Beast even though he may not be...
Featured in: 11+ readers | 14+ readers | Book Awards | Ebooks
Format: Paperback - Released: 19/06/2006
Info   Extract   Wishlist   Compare Price   Buy