About the author

Geraldine McCaughrean was born and educated in Enfield, North London, the third and youngest child of a fireman and a teacher. She trained as a teacher, worked for 10 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 the Carnegie Medal, Guardian Children's Fiction Award, Whitbread Children's Book of the Year (three times), Smarties Bronze (four times), UK Readers' Association Award, and wrote the Blue Peter Book of the Year 2000. In 2002, The Kite Rider and Stop the Train were both shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, with the latter being Highly Commended. Her most recent novel, The White Darkness, was shortlisted for the 2005 Whitbread Children’s Book Award and has just been shortlisted for the 2006 Carnegie medal.

On writing Peter Pan in Scarlet, Geraldine says: “‘Neverland was such a marvellous place to spend my year: I clean forgot Barrie’s ghost might be reading the computer screen over my shoulder – forgot to worry whether the necessary people would like what I wrote. Mind you, that’s a good sign. When a book’s a joy to write, some of the fun often snags on the letters and gets trapped between the pages.”

To find out more about Geraldine McCaughrean visit www.geraldinemccaughrean.co.uk