Geraldine McCaughrean has won the Carnegie Medal, the Whitbread Children's Book Award (three times), the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, the Smarties Bronze Award (four times), the Blue Peter Book of the Year award and the Blue Peter Special Book to Keep Forever award. Her novels include Peter Pan in Scarlet, The White Darkness, Not the End of the World, Smile!, Stop the Train, The Kite Rider, The Stones are Hatching, Plundering Paradise, Gold Dust, A Pack of Lies and A Little Lower than the Angels. Geraldine McCaughrean was born and educated in Enfield, North London, the youngest daughter of a fireman and a teacher. She trained as a teacher, worked for ten years in publishing, and in 1988 became a full-time writer. Since then Geraldine has written over 130 books and plays for both adults and children and has won every major children's book prize. Geraldine lives in Berkshire with her husband and their daughter.