LUCY COATS
Agent: Sophie Hicks
Lucy grew up in Hampshire, with Scottish parents. She went to the University of Edinburgh and studied English and Ancient History, where she also met her husband Richard. Having temporarily joined the army whilst at University, Lucy got a job as an editor in children’s book publishing. Whilst there she won a poetry competition, and soon had her first poem, Woobit Son, published in an anthology called Island of the Children.
After returning to the UK from working as an editor in America, Lucy gave up her job as an editor and turned to writing. Her first book, One Hungry Baby, was published in 1992, and she has been writing for children ever since, with 36 books published so far. In 1986 Lucy won the Selfridges/Parker Pen poetry competition, and in 2004 Atticus the Storyteller was shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Award.
Alongside her books, Lucy has poems published in Casting a Spell and has also been a regular contributor to Scholastic Poetry Collections and John Foster’s many collections for OUP, including Whizz Bang Oran-Utan and Cockadoodle Moo. As well as writing books and poems, Lucy regularly blogs, goes into schools, and gives adult Guardian Masterclasses on How to Write for Children. Today, Lucy has two grown-up children and lives in Northamptonshire with her husband. Her latest books are Cleo and its sequel Chosen published by Orchard and the hugely successful Beasts of Olympus series published by Piccadilly Books in the UK and Penguin in the US.