Emma Barnes - Children's Author

Emma Barnes grew up in Edinburgh.  She studied at Cambridge University, then worked in London in the Civil Service where she did a lot of writing -mainly about European steel subsides, milk mergers, and banana trade wars.  She then held a Globalization and Democratization Fellowship at the University of Colorado - she's still not sure exactly what the title means.  She did learn to ski, though.  She also climbed a 14,000 foot mountain and wrote a lot of essays.  She now lives in Leeds with her husband and two year old daughter, Abby, and writes full time - about things she wants to write about! 

 Emma's Writing Career

As a child Emma made up her first stories for her sister, Rosy.  They had to walk their dog each day on a path between two golf courses.  In between dodging golf balls, Emma invented tales of a witch's dog (the witch was allergic to cats) to keep Rosy amused.  Soon after, she started writing adventure stories - and collected a whole drawer full of first chapters.  Her first success as an adult was in a short story competition - the prize included a pair of Birkenstock sandals!  The story was about Schrodinger's cat and a love affair.  Her first children's book, Jessica Haggerthwaite: Witch Dispatcher was published in 2001.