Martyn Bedford - Writer

My time as a newspaper reporter and features writer ended many years ago but I had to brush off the journalistic cobwebs this week to write a piece for Books for Keeps. I was commissioned by the excellent children’s book magazine to interview the teen/YA author Hayley Long (pictured) as part of a series of articles about the four writers shortlisted in the children’s category of the 2015 Costa Book Awards, for which I am one of the judges.

I spent a very interesting and enjoyable hour chatting to Hayley about her work and, in particular, her wonderful novel Sophie Someone, which is on this year’s shortlist and is written in a code of her own invention.

Here’s the opening sentence of my article to whet your appetite: “Hayley Long is already a well-known noodle in the teenage bucket whirlpool but Sophie Someone promises to open the dormouse to an even grottier readership.”

To find out what on earth I’m talking about, and to read the feature in full, please click on this link to the Books for Keeps website.