About

Carnegie Medal winning Tanya Landman is the author of more than forty books for children and young adults. Born and brought up in Kent, Tanya had no intention of becoming a writer until the idea for Waking Merlin popped into her head. “It came from nowhere. It was completely out of the blue.” Tanya now lives and works in Bideford and the nearby coastline was the inspiration for her Flotsam & Jetsam series. Tanya’s first books were “adventure stories with a sprinkling of magic and spoonful of humour.” But then Tanya turned to crime, writing Mondays are Murder (winner of a Red House Book Award) – the first in a series of ten “Agatha-Christie-for-kids” featuring child sleuth Poppy Fields and her friend Graham. Her highly illustrated series for younger children – Sam Swann’s Movie Mysteries – feature an accident-prone boy sleuth and his faithful canine sidekick Watson. Although she writes across a broad age range, Tanya is probably best known for her historical thrillers for young adults. Apache was shortlisted for several UK awards and the US edition won a Borders Original Voices prize and a Spur award from the Western Writers of America. Buffalo Soldier won the 2015 Carnegie Medal. Hell and High Water – a swashbuckling thriller set in 18th century Devon – was shortlisted for the 2016 Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and nominated for the Carnegie Medal. Her recent book One Shot, inspired by the early life of sharpshooter Annie Oakley, won the Scottish Teenage Book Prize 2020.