Sylvia Bishop spent an entire childhood reading fiction, dreaming up stories and pretending. She then tried very hard to get to grips with the real world by studying politics and going in to social science research. This was a shock. Thankfully, she discovered improvised comedy at university, which allowed her to carry on making up stories for at least 30% of her waking hours.
Now she writes her stories down, preferably by lamp-light with tea. She only ever really writes the bad ones: the good ones write themselves without warning, generally when she was planning to go to bed.
Sylvia’s first books for young readers, Erica’s Elephant and The Bookshop Girl were published by Scholastic, and she has since written three middle grade mysteries, The Secret of the Night Train, Trouble in New York and the glorious gothic boarding school mystery The Midnight Thief, as well as a colour illustrated title for young readers, A Sea of Stories.
2020 saw the launch of 44 Tiny Secrets, the first title in an exciting new series for young readers from Stripes. The second title, 44 Tiny Acrobats, was published in February 2021 and the third title, 44 Tiny Chefs, followed in July 2021.
