SALLY GARDNER 

"I bow to her storytelling brilliance" 

Meg Rosoff

As a child Sally Gardner was bumped from school to school, at one point ending up at an institution for maladjusted children straight out of Dickens, because neither her teachers nor her parents could understand why such a clever girl, with an obvious love of books and words, could not read. It was the 1960s and she was dyslexic, a condition that had yet to be recognised. It wasn’t until she was 14 that she was able to read although she loved looking at books with pictures and telling herself stories. Her ability to escape into her head and to lose herself in her stories was she feels why she succeeded in the end.

Sally says, ‘I strongly believe that dyslexia is like a Rubik's Cube: it takes time to work out how to deal with it but once you do, it can be the most wonderful gift. The problem with dyslexia for many young people - and I can identify with this - is that their confidence is so damaged by the negativity of their teachers and their peers that it takes a very strong character to come out of the educational system smiling’. She goes on, ‘My dyslexia is like a cinema in my head – I’ve a filmic memory so when I see a scene in my head I see it like a film and this really aids my writing and my ability to tell stories’.

Her brilliantly readable new book, Silver Blade, was shortlisted for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and it brings the story that began in The Red Necklace to its conclusion. Both are set against the horrific and yet sometimes romantic events of the French Revolution – 9+ year olds will devour it and parents will love it too. For her younger readers, both boys and girls, then you must take a look at her Magical Children titles. All Sally’s titles are available in book form and on CD.

The first book she remembers reading is Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë and her favourite author and favourite book are Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Holes by Louis Sachar and The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.

Why not watch this video of her talking about her latest novel The Silver Blade and the Gift of dyslexia.