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Authors beginning with: L

Amanda Li

Amanda Li loves creating non-fiction, humour and activity titles for children and teenagers. When she was nine, she met Elisabeth Beresford (creator of The Wombles), who gave a talk at her local library and inspired her to become a children’s writer. Amanda hopes that some of the characters she has written about in Rise Up will inspire other children, too.

 

Andrew Lane

Andrew Lane is the author of the best-selling Young Sherlock Holmes books. These have been published around the world and are available in 37 different languages. Not only is he a life-long fan of Arthur Conan Doyle's great detective, he is also an expert on the books and is the only children's writer endorsed by the Sherlock Holmes Conan Doyle estate. Lost Worlds, the second series Andrew has written for children, is inspired by another famous Conan Doyle novel, The Lost World. Andrew's main character, Calum Challenger, is the grandson of Conan Doyle's protagonist, Professor George Edward Challenger.

Andrew also writes outside the genre, including adult thrillers (under a pseudonym), TV adaptations (including Dr Who) and non-fiction books (about things as wide-ranging as James Bond and Wallace & Gromit). He lives in Dorset with his wife and son and a vast collection of Sherlock Holmes books, the first of which he found in a jumble sale over forty years ago.

Anna Lavatelli

Anna Lavatelli is an award-winning Italian children's writer. Of the hundred or so books she has published, several have been mentioned by The White Ravens and she won the 2005 Italian Andersen Prize. Her stories have been published in Italy, Peru, Columbia, Ecuador, Mexico, Brazil and Spain. Her favourite topic is everyday life, finding something of interest in events which are both happy and sad, subtle and powerful, fun and dramatic. She prefers to set her tales in the real world, portraying it as a place which can, at times, be cold and hostile, and in which young people must find their way. She is an enthusiastic storyteller and promoter of reading. She splits her time between Italy and Peru.

Anna Llenas

Anna Llenas was born in Barcelona. She graduated in Advertising and Public Relations at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, with a diploma in Graphic Design by The Escola de la Llotya and has a postgraduate degree in Creative Illustration from the Escola Eina. She has developed graphic projects for clients as diverse as La Vanguardia (the Spanish daily newspaper), Nestle, and the Government of Catalonia. She has collaborated with other authors as an illustrator.

Anthony Lewis

As a child Anthony had a passion for drawing that was encouraged by his parents and teachers alike, and ultimately led him to his career as a freelance illustrator.

Since graduating with first class honours for the Liverpool School of Art in 1989 he has illustrated more than 300 children's books for publishers worldwide. Although book illustration is his specialist area, he also works on major advertising campaigns and for the design and editorial markets.

Astrid Lindgren

Astrid Lindgren was born Astrid Ericsson on November 14, 1907 on a farm called Nas outside the small town of Vimmerby in Sweden. As a child, Astrid loved to read, particularly books which had girls as the heroine. She loved Anne of Green Gables and the Pollyanna books. One of her strongest recollections as a child was meeting two pilots, Captains Sonders and Madicken. One of them tried to land on the roof of her house, or that is the way it looked at the time.

After attending public school, she moved to Stockholm and married Sture Lindgren. The Lindgrens had two children. Astrid wrote her first story, Britt-Mari Opens Her Heart, in 1944. Her second book, Pippi Longstocking, which she wrote as a present for her daughter's tenth birthday, was published in 1945. She received the Raben & Sjogren's Best Children's Book prize for Pippi and became a book editor for that publisher for many years. She also received numerous other honours and awards including the International Book Award.

C S Lewis

Clive Staples Lewis (1898–1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954, when he was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement.

Lewis wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. C. S. Lewis's most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Mere Christianity, Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and the universally acknowledged classics in The Chronicles of Narnia. To date, the Narnia books have sold over 100 million copies and been transformed into three major motion pictures.

Caroline Lawrence

Caroline Lawrence is an English American author, best known for The Roman Mysteries series of historical novels for children. The series is about a Roman girl called Flavia and her three friends: Nubia (a freed slave girl), Jonathan (a shunned Jewish boy) and Lupus (a beggar boy without a tongue). The series has won numerous awards and has been published in many different languages worldwide. In March 2010, Lawrence was commissioned to write another history mystery series of books called The Western Mysteries, set in Virginia City, Nevada Territory in the early 1860s.

David Lucas

David Lucas was born in Middlesbrough and grew up in Hackney, in east London. His stories are a mix of fairytale and autobiography, and his aim in all his work is to communicate his belief that the world is a magical place. As a child he enjoyed drawing and writing, and he went on to study at St Martin’s School of Art and then the Royal College of Art. He enjoys football, cooking and history.

In 2008 he was chosen as one of BookTrust's Best New Illustrators, as part of their Big Picture initiative. Halibut Jackson was 'favourite children's book of 2004' on Amazon.com, and picked as one of the top 10 children's books of that year (across all genres) by both Publisher's Weekly and Child magazine in the US. David currently lives in Lewes in East Sussex.

David Levithan

David Levithan is an American young adult fiction author and editor. His first book, Boy Meets Boy, was published by Knopf Books for Young Readers in 2003. He has written numerous works featuring strong male gay characters, most notably Boy Meets Boy and Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List.

David Litchfield

David first started to draw when he was very young, taking inspiration from his greatest companions: books and comics. His first endeavours into illustration were the Star Wars and Indiana Jones 'mash up' comics he created for his older brother and sister as a child. David's ideas all start in his sketchbook, and usually with a doodle. That's how his first picture book The Bear and The Piano came about. It went on to win 'Best illustrated book' at the Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2016. As well as creating wonderful children's books, he also spends one day a week lecturing students in illustration, graphic design and animation. David's work has appeared across a range of different media, magazines, newspapers, books and on t-shirts.

David Long

David Long spent 25 years writing features for national newspapers and editing glossy magazines before turning to books. An award-winning ghostwriter, under his own name he is the author of more than two dozen non-fiction titles for adults and children. With a keen focus on history and architecture, his books have been well received by readers and reviewers alike and translated into more than half a dozen languages. He lives in Suffolk, is the father of two boys, and has made regular appearances in newspapers, television and radio.

Derek Landy

Before writing his children's story about a sharply-dressed skeleton detective, Derek Landy wrote the screenplays for a zombie movie and a murderous thriller in which everybody dies.

As a black belt in Kenpo Karate he has taught countless children how to defend themselves, in the hopes of building his own private munchkin army. He firmly believes that they await his call to strike against his enemies (he doesn't actually have any enemies, but he's assuming they'll show up, sooner or later).

Derek lives on the outskirts of Dublin, and the reason he writes his own biography blurb is so that he can finally refer to himself in the third person without looking pompous or insane.

Elizabeth Laird

Elizabeth Laird is the award-winning author of many highly acclaimed novels. She has written over 30 books for children on a broad range of subjects, from historical adventures to real life stories, picture books to retelling of folk tales. She has won many awards, including the Children's Book Award for Kiss the Dust, the Smarties Young Judges Award, and the Lancashire Book Award. Elizabeth has been shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal five times as well as every other major children’s book award.

Errol Lloyd

Born in Jamaica and coming to the UK as a young man, Errol Lloyd started out as an illustrator of children’s stories, being nominated for the Kate Greenaway Medal for illustrations for the first full-colour picture book he worked on, My Brother Sean, written by Petronella Breinburg. He subsequently wrote and illustrated his own stories. His other children’s work includes novels and a book on black history. His first novel, Many Rivers to Cross, was runner-up for the Carnegie Medal. His work has been published in many foreign editions and languages, as well as Braille. Errol has undertaken hundreds of school and library visits, and his children’s work also includes plays for the Tricycle (now Kiln) Theatre, the Oxford Playhouse and Carib Theatre. His main aim is to write stories featuring children from ethnic minorities, but appealing to all. Errol Lloyd lives in north London.

Gill Lewis

After realising her childhood dream of becoming a vet, Gill worked in the UK and overseas, everywhere from Africa to the Arctic.

She has since become the acclaimed author of several books for children, including Sky Hawk and Gorilla Dawn. Gill’s writing has earned her numerous awards such as the UKLA Children’s Book Award and the Little Rebel Award, and several nominations for prestigious awards including the CILIP Carnegie Medal. Gill lives in Somerset.

Hayley Long

Hayley Long was born in Ipswich and went to university in Aberystwyth before becoming a teacher. She has worked in schools in London and Cardiff and still teaches A Level English to sixth-formers. Her first novel for teenagers was Lottie Biggs is (Not) Mad, which was followed by two more books in the Lottie Biggs series and the novel What's Up with Jody Barton? She lives in Norwich with her husband and their lovely house rabbit.

Jo Lodge

Jo Lodge is an illustrator and paper engineer and was greatly influenced by her artistic parents - her mother, Maureen Roffey, an illustrator, and her father Bernard Lodge, a graphic designer.

Jo graduated with a fashion degree from Kingston and worked for a knitwear company designing their main collection and consulting on projects for Next, Marks & Spencer and Saks Fifth Avenue. Her first books were published by Rod Campbell and her boldly coloured animal characters have been used in a range of series. Jo was nominated for the Sainsbury's Baby Book Award in 2001 and was finalist for the Sheffield Baby Book Award in 2007. She is best known for her Mr Croc books which have been extremely successful across the world with sales exceeding 1 million copies.

Jonathan Litton

Jonathan Litton was brought up by a pair of maths-teaching parents and briefly became a maths teacher himself, before starting life as a children’s book author and editor. Over the years he has written and edited a number of non-fiction titles for Templar Publishing and Little Tiger Press among others. Jonathan has lived in an igloo and a yurt, but he currently lives in a normal house in Surrey.

Josh Lacey

Josh Lacey is the author of The Dragonsitter, The Island of Thieves and the Grk series. He has worked as a journalist and written one book for adults, God is Brazilian. His first book for children, A Dog Called Grk, was shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award. He lives in London with his wife and daughter.

Julia Lee

Julia Lee has been making up stories for as long as she can remember. As a child she was ill quite a bit, which meant she spent lots of time lying in bed and reading - bliss! Julia grew up in London, studied English at university, and has an MA in Creative Writing. Her career has been a series of accidents, discovering lots of jobs she didn't want to do, because secretly she always wanted to be a writer. Julia is married, has two sons and lives in Sussex.

Kieran Larwood

Kieran Larwood, author of Freaks, was the winner of the Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition 2011. He graduated from Southampton University with a degree in English, and also did a foundation year at Falmouth College of Art. He has been passionate about stories ever since he first read The Hobbit at age six. Kieran is also one of only two male reception class teachers on the Isle of Wight. His days mainly consist of singing nursery rhymes, tying shoelaces, trying to work out who has had an ‘accident’ by sense of smell alone, and vast, endless mountains of paperwork.

M. G. Leonard

M. G. Leonard is an award-winning, bestselling writer of children’s books, as well as a member of Authors4Oceans. Before becoming a writer, M. G. Leonard worked as a digital media producer for the National Theatre and Shakespeare's Globe. She is also a trained actor, dabbling in directing and producing as well as performing. 

Marianne Levy

Marianne Levy spent her twenties as an actor. She was in various TV shows, did some comedy on Radio 4 and made a brief appearance in the film Ali G Indahouse, where she managed to forget both her lines. She then worked as a continuity announcer for Living TV, introducing, and getting obsessed with, America's Next Top Model. She's been the voice of a leading brand of make-up, a shopping centre and a yogurt. Marianne is the author of the Ellie May young-fiction series for Egmont and a regular contributor to the Independent on Sunday. She lives in London with her husband, daughter and a bad-tempered cat. Accidental Superstar is her first novel for older readers.

Mark Lowery

Mark Lowery grew up in Preston. He is now a teacher in Cambridge, where he lives with his girlfriend, their daughter and their baby son. His debut, Socks are Not Enough, was shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize. Pants are Everything is the sequel.

In 2005-06, he studied for a Master’s Degree in Writing for Children at the University of Winchester. It was during this course that he first came up with the idea for Socks Are Not Enough, which is his first novel.

Minna Lacey

Since joining Usborne, Minna has written books on everything from pirates and gladiators to jungles and oceans. She studied Maths and Philosophy at university and previously worked as a journalist and illustrator in London, Bogota and New York. In her spare time, she loves writing stories, drawing and playing the guitar.

Neal Layton

Neal was born and raised in Chichester, West Sussex but has since lived in Newcastle, Brighton, London, Slough and Glasgow. He now lives in Portsmouth with his family. He likes living by the seaside.

His studio is a room in his house where he can make a mess. The walls are covered with pictures, drawings, scribbles, badges, photos, posters, packaging and anything else that he finds inspiring. He uses all sorts of different media to make his illustrations: pencils, paint, pens, ink, pieces of collage, biros, photocopiers, cameras, a computer, bits of stick, old toothbrushes, dough, hair, leaves, anything that comes to hand... He likes his illustrations to appear as fresh and spontaneous as possible.

Patrice Lawrence

Patrice Lawrence was born in Brighton and brought up in an Italian and Trinidadian household. Her first book for young adults, Orangeboy, was shortlisted for the Costa Children’s Book Award and won the Bookseller YA Prize and Waterstone’s Prize for Older Children's Fiction. Indigo Donut, her second book for teenagers, won the Crimefest YA Prize. Both books have been nominated for the Carnegie Medal. Patrice worked for more than 20 years for charities supporting equality and social justice. These themes (along with a serious amount of music) inform her stories. Patrice still lives in Brighton.

She is our current Writer in Residence.

Watch our interview with Patrice Lawrence

Rob Lloyd Jones

Rob Lloyd Jones is a writer and editor for Usborne Publishing Ltd. in the UK and is the author of other books as diverse as The Story of Football and Animals at War. He has lived in London for most of his life, and studied ancient history at the University of Birmingham. He enjoys football, comics and sitting around in the sun.

Sam Lloyd

Sam Lloyd's books have won many awards including the BookTrust Pre-School Award 2006, the V&A Illustration Award, the Roald Dahl Funny Prize 2009, the Richard & Judy Best Children's Book 2006 and the Sheffield Baby Book Award 2009.

Sam loves going to music festivals with her monster mate puppets ..and has done children's events with Templar at Glastonbury and Camp Bestival. She has spent lots of time travelling with her backpack and sketchbook...she has explored many parts of the world, always scribbling book ideas as she goes!

Simon Lelic

Simon Lelic is a writer of crime and thriller novels for adults - winner of the Betty Trask Award, shortlisted for the CWA Dagger Awards and the Galaxy National Book Awards. He lives in Brighton with his wife and three children. Other than his family, reading is Simon's biggest passion. He also holds a black belt in karate, in which he trains daily.

Steven Lenton

Steven Lenton hails from Cheshire where he spent many a school holiday working in the family Pom-pom Factory, packing poms and designing new products. Along with illustrating picture books, Steven also designs greeting cards and prints. Steven lives with his partner Jay and his dog in Crouch End where he dunks endless amounts of biscuits in big red spotty cups of tea whilst listening to Radio 2.

Suzanne LaFleur

Suzanne LaFleur was born just outside of Boston, Massachusetts in 1983. When Suzanne was nine a very important thing happened. She was handed a blank composition book and told to write five lines a day. Five lines a day turned into five pages a day, which turned into a novel; soon Suzanne announced that she would write books for kids her age when she grew up. People who were already grown up told her that she had plenty of time to change her mind, but, being someone who rarely changes her mind about anything, she never did.

Tanya Landman

Tanya studied English Literature at university, and then worked in a bookshop running the children’s section, an arts centre and a zoo. Since 1992 she has been a writer of books for all ages – including adventures, retellings of Greek myths, detective stories, graphic novels, and historical fiction set in Britain and North and South America. Buffalo Soldier, published by Walker Books, won the Carnegie Medal in 2015. She lives in north Devon with her two sons, Isaac and Jack, Edgar – a ferocious Siamese cat, and two eternally optimistic Labradors, Hobson and Sally.

Terri Libenson

Terri Libenson is the cartoonist of the internationally syndicated comic strip, The Pajama Diaries, which currently runs in hundreds of newspapers throughout the US and around the world. Terri lives with her husband and two daughters in Cleveland, Ohio.