PAULA LEYDEN
Agent: Sophie Hicks
Paula was born in Nyeri, Kenya in 1958 and grew up in Lusaka, Zambia where she lived until the age of fifteen. Her family then moved to South Africa where she studied English and History at the University of Natal, and Education at the University of Cape Town.
Before becoming a writer, Paula was first as a secondary school teacher, and then became a human rights lawyer working specifically towards the abolition of the death penalty. Most notably she was involved in preparing submissions for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, and a human rights awareness campaign post the 1994 democratic election.
In 2003 Paula moved with her partner and their five children to a farm in Kilkenny, Ireland, where she started writing for children. Her books are The Butterfly Heart which won the Eilis Dillon Award in 2012 and The Sleeping Baobab Tree, Winner of the Special Judges Award 2014. They are both set in Zambia and published by Walker Books. Paula is currently still based in Ireland, where her family breed Irish Draught horses and Clydesdales.