Appearing
Northumberland (19th), North Tyneside (20th), Gateshead (21st)
Author Website
www.barbaramitchelhill.com/
Publisher
Andersen Press
I was born in a town called Rochdale which is in Lancashire. There was just me, my older brother, Roger and Mum. My dad had died when I was a baby so Mum had to work very hard to look after the three of us. We lived in a street just like Coronation Street and we didn't have much money. On the opposite side of the street was a great big cotton mill which made our house very dark. We had to keep the light on all day.
I went to Derby Street School when I was three. Once I'd learned to read and write, I loved writing stories, turning them into books and illustrating them with my drawings. I also liked dressing up and acting out the stories with my friends. I stayed at Derby Street School until I was eleven when I went to Rochdale Grammar School. Then I turned into a very lazy teenager. I didn't much like lessons because I wanted to leave school and become an actress - but Mum wasn't happy about that. So I stayed on and went to college (now Warwick University) and became a teacher. I was happy teaching because I liked children very much - except the really naughty ones, of course!
After I got married and had two daughters called Susie and Sally, I began to write stories. Every morning, I would teach in a school at Bridgtown in Cannock and every afternoon, I would write stories before the girls came home from school. But I became busier and busier as a writer and so I decided that I would have to give up teaching.
Even though I don't teach any more, I'm lucky enough to meet lots of children. My writing has taken me all over the UK to schools, libraries and book festivals. I've also visited schools in the Caribbean, Germany, Malta and Singapore where the children might look different - but I find they are just like children at home.
Now my daughters are grown up and they have children of their own - Louise, Lucy, Max and Tom. I love to read stories to them. I'm lucky enough to live in a village in Staffordshire in a large sunny house with a big garden - nothing like the tiny, dark house where I was brought up. I have a dog called Ella (a border terrier) and enjoy taking her for walks over the fields. It's a great way to think up stories.
When I'm not writing, I like to read or go to the theatre or listen to music or dig in the garden or see friends and family. There just never seems to be enough time to do everything I want to do!
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