A former broadcast journalist and special adviser to the Prime Minister (not this one), since leaving politics Joanna has written more than 90 books for children and adults, including the UK bestselling The Worst Class in the World series, the Flying Fergus series with Sir Chris Hoy, and the Carnegie-nominated Joe All Alone, No Man's Land and Calamity of Mannerings. She has been a World Book Day author, a Blue Peter book of the month and Radio 4 and the i magazine Book of the Year, won the Fantastic Book Award and the Highland Book Prize, and been shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, Queen of Teen and the Big Book Awards among many others, and is published across multiple territories. She has a PhD in Creative Writing and is a Senior Lecturer in the subject at University of Bristol, as well as teaching for the Arvon Foundation.