Ten of the Best

A collection of stories written by ten prize-winning authors based on their own schooldays, but not excluding a little fantasy. Written in each author’s unique style and based on something that is common to every child in the country – school. The tales include stories of: running away from school; getting the strap for punishments; vindictive teachers; boys who tell porky-pies; the shy girl who could only talk through her puppet; getting expelled; being an evacuee; and meeting one’s own true love at school. Stories that contemporary schoolchildren should relate to in sharing the triumphs and disasters of some of their favourite authors’ schooldays. The ten authors featured in this collection are Bernard Ashley, Malorie Blackman, Berlie Doherty, Paul Jennings, Margaret Mahy, Michael Morpurgo, Jenny Nimmo, Michael Rosen, Jeremy Strong and Robert Swindells.

Author Biography

Wendy Cooling was an English teacher for many years before moving to become Head of the Children’s Book Foundation [now Young Book Trust]. She was the inspiration behind Book Start – a government backed national scheme to introduce babies to books – and has been a major spokesperson for children’s books in the last ten years. Apart from children’s book and reading, Wendy’s other major passion is travel and it would be difficult to find anywhere in the world that she hasn’t been!