Deborah Chancellor

Deborah Chancellor is a writer of children’s fiction and non-fiction. To date, she has written nearly 100 books for a variety of leading publishers and has been translated into several languages. Deborah is a versatile author who has written biographies for teenagers, stories for children, and adapted Bible tales for the very young. She is a prolific writer of children’s non-fiction on a wide range of subjects.

Deborah’s fiction includes Spymaster (A & C Black, 2014), Code Breakers (Barrington Stoke, 2009) and collections of children’s stories, such as I Love Reading Phonics (Ticktock, 2012) and Reading Heroes (Parragon, 2008). She has adapted 365 stories from the Bible in the illustrated Children’s Everyday Bible (Dorling Kindersley, 2002). Her non-fiction ranges from historical biography (Harriet Tubman, A & C Black, 2013; Emily Wilding Davison, Barrington Stoke, 2012) to topical issues (Moving to Britain, Franklin Watts, 2008) to matters of general interest (Everything You Need to Know, Kingfisher, 2007).

Deborah enjoys the challenge of communicating complex material in a clear and inspiring way for a new generation of readers. She has a particular interest in writing for older children with reading difficulties, and has written three titles for Barrington Stoke, an award-winning independent publisher leading the way in this field. Deborah trained as a primary teacher before becoming a children’s book editor at Dorling Kindersley. Now a full-time writer, she appears at literary festivals and runs writing workshops for young people. She lives near Cambridge with her husband, three children and a dog.

Deborah Chancellor is a prolific writer of children’s fiction and non-fiction on a wide range of subjects. She first trained as a primary teacher before becoming a children’s book editor and author; she likes to appear at literary festivals and run writing workshops for children and young people. Deborah now juggles her time between a busy writing and editing career and working in a Sixth Form library. She has worked as the RLF Writing Fellow at the University of Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin University, giving writing tutorials to undergraduates and post-graduates. She loves helping young people see potential in their writing and gain confidence and enthusiasm for their work.