Biographical note

The recently appointed Children’s Laureate, Malorie Blackman, is the author of the multi-award-winning Noughts and Crosses series, which deals with issues of race and ethnic identity. Her latest novel is Noble Conflict. She has written more than 60 books for children and teenagers, including Pig-Heart Boy, which was shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal and adapted into a BAFTA-winning television series. Blackman is particularly celebrated for writing about a diverse range of characters, including those who are often marginalised in society, such as teenage fathers in her novel Boys Don't Cry. In 2008 she was honoured with an OBE for her services to children's literature and became the Waterstones Children’s Laureate in June 2013.