Becca Heddle

Becca Heddle is an award-winning writer of books for children. Mainly published in primary school reading schemes by Oxford University Press and HarperCollins, her nonfiction titles cover topics from the moon to the parts of plants you can eat, and from otters and their habitat to the history of communications technology. Although a linguist by training, she often tends towards scientific topics. Science with Weather (Usborne, 1993) was joint winner of that year’s junior COPUS book prize for contributing to the public understanding of science. Her fiction output includes retellings of traditional tales as well as stories of her own devising, including some woven around nonfiction elements. She aims to create books which are not only tailored to specific reading ability levels but also truly interesting to read; she also gets a kick from rising to the extra challenge of writing phonics-friendly books, working around severe restrictions at the level of the sounds used and which letters represent them.

Becca also edits books and teaching materials, and works with schools, encouraging pupils to find and trap good ideas to use as a springboard for their own writing. She has collaborated with a climate scientist to structure and write a website on his research, and has volunteered for many years in educational settings, from primary schools to adults’ functional skills classes.

Away from her desk, Becca tries to keep up with her teenage daughters, has a go at any craft available and is a lifelong language learner and general intellectual magpie.