Meet the authors

Get inside the creative minds behind this year’s £1 books for older readers and teens. Some of our fantastic line-up of authors have also shared their inspirations and writing know-how in our new series of Author & Illustrator Academy videos.

Read on to find out more about our 2021 authors and for links to their videos – available on World Book Day and all year round.

Derek Landy

Apocalypse Kings is a stand-alone adventure from Derek Landy’s bestselling series of books, Skulduggery Pleasant.

Derek writes authentic, likeable characters within his witty novels, and his video centres around writing realistic people alongside how he’s kept himself entertained during lockdown. Discover his Author & Illustrator Academy video, How to make characters feel real.

Sita Brahmachari

The River Whale explores a dream becoming reality and is written using a mixture of free verse and prose. Sita’s experience in telling stories for audiences on stage in the theatre and working with young people in workshops listening to their views of the world are a huge influence on her writing.

Watch Sita’s Author & Illustrator Academy video on Inspirations for storytelling flow.

Katherine Rundell

Skysteppers – a prequel to Rooftoppers – embraces Katherine’s love of being on the rooftops of a city and the different perspective that offers. When Katherine isn’t climbing the roofs of Oxford colleges she is teaching Shakespeare or writing adventure stories.

She shares more of her inspiration for this book and some writing ideas for you to try in her Author & Illustrator Academy video on Imagine a wild adventure.

Holly Jackson

Kill Joy is an opportunity to find out where it all began for Pip in this prequel to the best-selling A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and Good Girl, Bad Blood.

Holly Jackson finds inspiration to write her novels from her own passion for true crime. She lives in London and aside from reading and writing, she enjoys playing video games and watching true crime documentaries so she can pretend to be a detective.

Check out more Academy videos from 2020’s World Book Day – all still available to watch, including:

Malorie Blackman and Patrice Lawrence on Connecting to the reader.

Holly Smale on Using your emotions.

Chris Riddell on Finding your style.