Millie Murray

Millie Murray writes fiction and non-fiction for both young people and adults. Her first attempt at short story writing, ‘The Escape’, was published in the 1986 anthology Watchers and Seekers. Many other short stories followed, including ‘A Passage of Time’ for Radio Four’s Caribbean Drift. In 1987 Millie wrote her first teenaged novel Keisha, published by the Women’s Press, for which she was awarded an Arts Council Bursary. Other books include Lady A A Teenaged DJ (1988), Jade (2000) – about teenage pregnancy, which proved to be not only topical but popular – and Lots (2003). Non-fiction books for adults include Addicted (1995 with Steve Derbyshire) and Tough Talk (2000). She has contributed to the BBC 2 Comedy sketch show The Real McCoy and was creator and co-writer for the popular Radio Four comedy sketch show The Airport, nominated Best Comedy of the Year.

Born in 1958 to Jamaican parents. Millie has lived all of her life in the east of London. Her original desire was to be an actress. Yet, on leaving school at 16, she began to train as a Cadet Nurse, and worked for eleven years in the fields of general nursing and psychiatry. Millie joined the Black Theatre Cooperative in 1982, and wrote and performed in many of their variety productions throughout London. In 1984, she began to live her dream by beginning a two year performing arts course at Barking College of Technology. Unfortunately during a dance class she tore her Achilles tendon. Her desire to be an actress took a blow – so Millie began to write.

Millie works with Community and Youth Services in the London Boroughs of Newham, Barking and Dagenham offering creative writing and motivational development workshops in schools.  In Barking she runs a reminiscence project at a Day Care centre with local school children working alongside elderly residents. In Canning Town-Newham, she has embarked upon a Family Literary project developing confidence-building skills in writing presentation.  Millie lives with her husband and two sons in Essex, just on the outskirts of East London.