Malorie Blackman – Year of election 2009

Malorie Blackman’s first book, Not So Stupid, published in 1990, was a collection of horror and science fiction stories. She has since written more than 50 books for children, including Pig Heart Boy (made into a BAFTA-winning BBC serial), Hacker, The Stuff of Nightmares and the award-winning Noughts & Crosses series.  In 2003 she was the only black writer to have made the top 100 favourite books in the BBC’s The Big Read, Noughts & Crosses coming between Crime and Punishment and A Tale of Two Cities. “It was such a thrill to be on that list,” she told an interviewer. “But I kept scanning the room for more black faces and thinking, where are all the others?”

At school she was advised, “Black women don’t go to college.” “It’s such insidious stuff,” she has said. “Kids are still amazed when I walk in and they see that you can be black and a writer.” In 2005, she was honoured with the Eleanor Farjeon Award, and in 2008 she was appointed OBE for services to children’s literature.