Ali Sparkes is the Blue Peter Award winning author of over 60 books for children and young adults. She began her career as a reporter for the Southampton Daily Echo before moving to BBC Radio Solent as a broadcast journalist. Comedy columns on BBC Radio 4 followed and her first book, The Shapeshifter: Finding the Fox, was published by Oxford in 2006. Ali has presented and workshopped in schools and festivals worldwide, and more recently returned to Radio 4 with her romcom Tess of the Tollbooth. She loves working with Southampton’s talented young writers.