About Heather
Heather Maisner’s work as a writer has always been combined with other forms of employment: teaching, translating, editing and, most recently, publishing. Her books range from picture books to titles for fluent readers and teenagers, and many are ideal for reluctant young readers, combining fiction with fact and games with information.
Heather spends her time between London and Norfolk, where her house has always been full of pets: dogs, cats, hamsters, rabbits, a chinchilla. But no dinosaurs, until now.
Heather's story
From a drawer to a dinosaur
-
Age 12
Writes her first novel. It stays in a drawer, but the habit sticks.
-
Age 16
Wins the Daily Mirror Children’s Literary Competition, chosen from 35,000 entrants.
-
Essex University
Graduates in English and Russian literature, then works as a teacher, translator from Russian, French and Spanish, editor and commissioning editor of children’s and adult books, often specialising in cookery.
-
Walker Books
Her son’s fascination with tractors becomes The Tractors of Thomson Yard, four picture books set on a Norfolk farm, each tractor with its own song, at a time when no book had a tractor as a hero.
-
Thirty-six books and counting
Fiction and non-fiction, picture books and game books, for Walker, Hachette, OUP, Egmont, Frances Lincoln, Macmillan and the BBC, translated and sold in many countries.
-
Teaching
Author in Residence at two Hammersmith primary schools, teaching trainee teachers at the University of Hertfordshire and students at Queen Mary’s College, and six years on the board of the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society.
-
Dinosaur Douglas Books
Becomes an author-publisher. Five rhyming health picture books for early years, illustrated by Alex Godwin, with paediatric consultants, dentists, hygiene researchers and family support teams behind the stories.
Awards
Early Years Excellence Awards finalist
Dinosaur Douglas Books were finalists in the Early Years Excellence Awards.
YALSA Best Book for Reluctant Young Readers
The Magic Hourglass: A Round-the-World Adventure Game won the American Library Association’s YALSA award.
English Association Award shortlist
Diary of a Princess, the story of a princess at the time of Marco Polo, was shortlisted.
Daily Mirror Children’s Literary Competition winner
Heather won the competition at sixteen, out of 35,000 entrants.
Heather at a Dinosaur Douglas launch, one of the school visits she runs across London, Norfolk and further afield.
Author visits
Invite Heather to your school
Creative writing workshops, readings and talks for nurseries, primary schools, libraries and teacher training. Fees on enquiry.