Theresa Breslin

Theresa Breslin is an award-winning librarian and writer with a special interest in children's literature.

She was born and brought up in a small town in the middle of Scotland close to castles, old burial grounds and the Roman Wall, all of which helped fuel an active imagination as a child, further developed by a love of reading. Her books have been praised for their elements of strong setting and sense or place and she acknowledges that she draws on the dramatic landscape of Scotland, its history and its culture.

While working as a mobile librarian she wrote her first book - the route included a small village where the local steel mill closed down devastating the community. She has been described as an outstanding writer who combines a powerful sense of drama with memorable characters and superb storytelling. Books range from historical tales to modern school stories, from science fiction and fantasy to real life situations faced by children, such as bullying, or settling in at a new school. As well as writing 'fun' stories she thinks it is valuable to address serious issues with the framework of fiction and allow young people to explore and extend their knowledge in this way. She aims to encourage imagination, and themes within the books often reflect her interest in storytelling and children's literacy; with 'challenged children' taking a leading role. She loves writing humorous stories where children cause confusion, and triumph over adult foolishness.

Her work is in translation in a number of languages, is used extensively in schools and has been filmed for television and dramatised for radio. She is committed to promoting reading and writing and will talk about this to anyone who will listen! She has served on the board of the Scottish Book Trust and on the advisory committee for Public Lending Right in the UK.

Supported by the Scottish Arts Council and the Federation of Children's Book Groups, she started the West of Scotland Children's Book Group. She is currently on the BRAW advisory committee. She actively supports literacy initiatives for young people and has written articles and made a wide variety of presentations on the subject. She co-ordinated the Scottish Writers project producing the BAFTA nominated CD Rom - an exciting interactive CD using computer based game technology to promote fiction in an innovative way to 14-16 year olds.

She is in demand as an experienced conference and book festival speaker and creative writing tutor. In her spare time she loves to browse through old children's books and also enjoys walking, films, theatre, reading (especially children's books) and exploring old graveyards. She loves to travel, meeting people, seeing different sights, and hearing stories from countries around the world.