Babs Horton

Babs Horton is an award-winning novelist. Her first book A Jarful of Angels (Simon & Schuster, 2003) won the Pendleton May prize and was shortlisted for the Authors’ Club first novel award. Dandelion Soup was published in 2004, Wildcat Moon in 2006 and Recipes for Cherubs in 2009. She was a contributor to Beryl Cook: 1926–2008 (University of Plymouth Press, 2009) and her short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies worldwide. In 2019 her play Wings was longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize.

Babs was the Head of English in a Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service where she witnessed the power of literature in enhancing the experiences of fragile young people, helping them to challenge their thinking and move forward in their lives.

She was a Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at University of Plymouth and subsequently became a Consultant Fellow where she was the lead in training professional writers to take up posts in CAMHS units across the UK. She ran workshops on all aspects of writing with companies, institutions and start-up groups and went on to mentor other writers in this area.

Babs worked as a writing mentor for young people in collaboration with Plymouth Libraries and Literature Works. She is a practitioner at Theatre Royal Plymouth running workshops for emerging playwrights.