Spellbinder

Ghillian Potts is now 83. As well as bringing up a family, she has worked in bookshops, in educational publishing and as a secondary school teacher. She has been writing continuously, both prose and verse, since she was 7. At that age she got out of a bit of housework by saying, “Must I, Mum? I’m writing a Poem!” in her best whine. To her amazement, her mum at once said, “Oh, all right, I’ll do it!” Obviously, writing was a Good Thing. As well as a number of stories for younger children published in the 1990s and 2000s, one of which, Sink or Swim, featured on Jackanory, she has written historical readers for a local school. Young adult novels have been written at various stages in her career, but none have been published until now.