War Girls

About Adele Geras, Melvin Burgess, Berlie Doherty, Mary Hooper

Adele Geras was born in Jerusalem and travelled widely as a child. She started writing over twenty-five years ago and has published more than 80 titles. Ithaka was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize and the Whitbread Chirldren's Book Award. She lives in Manchester with her husband and has two grown-up daughters and two grandchildren.

Melvin Burgess was born in London and brought up in Surrey and Sussex. He has had a variety of jobs before becoming a full-time writer. Before his first novel, he had short stories published and a play broadcast on Radio 4. He is now regarded as one of the best writers in contemporary children's literature, having won the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize for his acclaimed novel Junk.

Berlie Doherty began writing for children in 1983, after teaching and working in radio. She has written more than 35 books for children, as well as for the theatre, radio and television. Berlie has won the Carnegie Medal twice: in 1987 for Granny Was A Buffer Girl and in 1992 for Dear Nobody. She has also won the Writer's Guild Children's Fiction Award for Daughter of The Sea. Her work is published all over the world, and many of her books have been televised.

Mary Hooper has been writing professionally for over twenty years and has published nearly eighty books for children and young people. She has written funny books, 'issue' books and spooky books, and has now settled into doing what she loves best: writing historical novels centering around real situations (The Great Plague in 1665, for example) and real people (Anne Green, who was hanged for infanticide in Oxford, 1650).

Anne Fine is one of our most distinguished writers for children. She has written over fifty highly acclaimed books and has won numerous awards, including the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and both the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year and the Carnegie Medal twice over. Anne was appointed the Children's Laureate from 2001-3, and her work has been translated into over forty languages. In 2003 she became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was awarded an OBE. Anne lives in County Durham.

Theresa Breslin is an award-winning Scottish author whose work has appeared on television and radio. Her first book, Simon's Challenge, won the Young Book Trust's Fidler Award for new writers and she was awarded the Carnegie Medal for Whispers in the Graveyard. The Dream Master was shortlisted for the Children's Book Award and Remembrance, a story of youth in World War One, was shortlisted for the South Lanarkshire, the Sheffield, and the North-East Book Awards. Divided City has been shortlisted for the Sheffield Children's Book Award 2006 and longlisted for the Carnegie Medal. Her latest novel is The Nostradamus Prophecy published in May 2008. This is a gripping novel about love, loyalty, power and mystery. It is steeped in atmosphere and its historical setting is brought vividly to life. Underlying the well crafted historical story is a pressing contemporary concern for readers of today. She managed the BAFTA nominated Scottish Writers project and was awarded Honorary Membership of the Scottish Library Association for distinguished services to Children's Literature and Librarianship.

Debut author Rowena House experienced war first-hand as a Reuters' foreign correspondent in Africa. Her War Girls story won a competition run by Andersen Press for creative writing Masters students at Bath Spa University.