Margaret McAllister

Margaret McAllister lives in WestYorkshire with her husband, a practicingMinister. With a background in teaching,Margaret, has always enjoyed making upstories and in the early nineties found thetime to put these down on paper. Her firstbook A Friend for Rachel (re-titled as TheSecret Mice) was published in 1997 byOxford University Press. Margaret hassince gone on to publish further novelswith OUP (including many literacy titles intheir Reading Tree series) as well as withBloomsbury and Puffin.

With favourite authors including JaneAusten, C. S. Lewis, Elizabeth Goudge andJerome K. Jerome, it is no surprise thatMargaret enjoys writing historical andfantasy fiction. Margaret is known for herMistmantle Chronicles, the first of which Urchin of the Riding Stars wasshortlisted for the Ottakars Childrens Book Prize, as well as The Life Shop andHigh Crag Linn for Lion Childrens Books. Most recently Margaret has publishedthe Hammy the Wonder Hamster series under the pseudonym Poppy Harris forPuffin, and The Lion Classic Aesops Fables for Lion (September 2011).

In addition to writing, Margaret enjoys dance, theatre, music and history, and iscurrently learning how to play the piano.