This month’s Guest Editor, William Nicholson, screenwriter, playwright and novelist was born in 1948 and after studying at Cambridge joined the BBC as a documentary film maker. However, his ambition was always to write and so he did, beginning with television dramas, then stage plays and films. He was the co-writer for the Russell Crowe epic Gladiator, has been nominated for two Oscars and won and been shortlisted for numerous book awards!

In 2000 his first novel for older children was published, called The Wind Singer, and it went on to scoop a load of awards and became a trilogy and after that there was no stopping his literary output. William Nicholson now lives in Sussex with his wife Virginia and their three teenage children. His new novel for teenagers, Rich and Mad is more than likely to raise a few eyebrows. However, it is also a very compelling and beautifully written novel about first love, first sex, and everything in between.

Guest Editor Choices William Nicholson – April 2010 

The Beano: What more can I say? The single most formative reading of my childhood, which made Thursdays a day of full colour and deeply peculiar satisfaction.... read more

The Sword in the Stone by THWhite: I don't know if anyone reads this any more but when I was a boy it made me ill with laughter... read more

Foundation by Isaac Asimov: The first of the Foundation trilogy, which gripped me as a teenager. Fully thought-through, intellectually compelling science fiction ... read more

The Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder: My younger sister's favourite books (there's a whole series of them) and ignored by me until I was grown up. How wrong I was... read more

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams: A work of comic genius, fizzing with ideas, profoundly original, and a highly dangerous influence on all imaginative writers. Read, admire, but don't attempt to copy.

Click on the names below to see Previous Guest Editor's choices.

Robert Muchamore, Michael Foreman