It is New Year’s Eve 2024 and I have just learnt that my and David Litchfield’s latest picture book, ‘The Boy, The Troll and The Chalk,’ which was published in 2024, has won the Books for Topics best read aloud book for Key Stage One as nominated by teachers. That was such a lovely surprise – I have been a published writer for Children’s books for ten years and although I have had exciting nominations – for The Carnegie, Shortlisted for The Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize, and short and longlisted for other lovely prizes, I have actually never won anything and had really given up hope of ever doing so. It came at just the right time when I was feeling a bit wobbly about writing – it’s hard and rather lonely work and you can never be 100% something will be taken up or published, and I was wondering if I was running out of steam, so I feel encouraged, and I want to pass on that encouragement. I am ever so proud of our book and David’s beautiful illustrations. We don’t write for awards, and ultimately we have to love the process itself and try to write (and illustrate) the best books we can and tell the stories we want and need to hear and hope others will feel the same and enjoy them too. I hope that we all get to read and illustrate and write the stories we want and need to hear in 2025, and that our own lives are stories full of love and hope and creativity!