Amanda Swift writes children’s fiction, specialising in comedy. Her novels for nine- to 12-year-olds, The Boys’ Club, Big Bones and Anna/Bella, are all contemporary coming-of-age comedy dramas, while the series for five- to eight-year-olds she co-wrote with Jennifer Gray, Guinea Pigs Online and Puppies Online, are comedy adventures with an underlying message about the pros and cons of growing up in the internet age.
She has also written extensively for television: she was one of the original writers on My Parents are Aliens, lead writer on 24Seven and team writer on I Dream, all for Granada Kids. She has also written for the animated series Horrid Henry (Citv), Little Princess (Channel 5) and Guess with Jess (CBeebies), as well as dramatising Jacqueline Wilson’s The Dare Game and The Bed and Breakfast Star for radio.
Amanda taught the writing for children course at City University, London, which spawned the Finsbury Writing Group; she has also mentored new writers for children. Several of her ex-students are now widely published and prize-winning authors. She has an MA and a ProfGCE, is committed to facilitating creative writing in primary schools, and is a member of the National Association of Writers in Education. Other educational work has included teaching adult literacy at Lewisham College in south-east London, which is where she also lives. Her hobbies are long-distance walking and talking.
