# Geraldine McCaughrean

Geraldine McCaughrean (/məˈkɔːkrən/ mə-KAWK-rən; born 6 June 1951) is a British children's novelist. She has written more than 170 books, including Peter Pan in Scarlet (2004), the official sequel to Peter Pan commissioned by Great Ormond Street Hospital, the holder of Peter Pan's copyright. Her work has been translated into 44 languages worldwide. She has received the Carnegie Medal twice and the Michael L. Printz Award among others.

## Personal life and education

McCaughrean was born 6 June 1951 in London to Leslie Arthur and Ethel Jones. The youngest of three children, she grew up in North London. McCaughrean attended Southgate Technical College from 1969 to 1970, then received a Bachelor of Education with honors from Christ Church College, Canterbury in 1977.
McCaughrean is married to John McCaughrean, with whom she has a daughter: Ailsa.

## Career

McCaughrean studied teaching but found her true vocation in writing. She claims that what makes her love writing is the desire to escape from an unsatisfactory world. Her motto is: do not write about what you know, write about what you want to know.
McCaughrean's work includes many retellings of classic stories for children: The Odyssey, El Cid, The Canterbury Tales, The Pilgrim's Progress, Moby Dick, One Thousand and One Arabian Nights and Gilgamesh.
J. M. Barrie gave all rights to Peter Pan to Great Ormond Street Hospital in 1929, and in 2004, to coincide with Peter Pan's centenary, the hospital launched a competition to find the author of a sequel. McCaughrean won the competition, after submitting a synopsis and a sample chapter. Peter Pan in Scarlet was released internationally on 5 October 2006, published in the UK by Oxford University Press and in the US by Simon & Schuster.
McCaughrean has written many other children's fiction books including The Kite Rider, The Stones Are Hatching, and Plundering Paradise. She has also written six historical novels for adults including: The Maypole (1990), Fire's Astonishment (1991), Lovesong (1996) and The Ideal Wife (1997).
As of 2013, McCaughrean has launched an online novel based on the Hylas and Hercules myth, A Thousand Kinds of Ugly.

## Awards and honours

For her lifetime contribution as a children's writer, McCaughrean was the British nominee in 2004 for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international recognition available to creators of children's books. She was elected an Honorary Fellow of Canterbury Christ Church University in 2006 and a Fellow of the English Association in 2010. She has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature since 2010.
Four of McCaughrean's books are Junior Library Guild selections: Not the End of the World (2005), The White Darkness (2007), The Glorious Adventures of the Sunshine Queen (2011), and Where the World Ends (2020).
In 2002, The Horn Book Magazine included The Kite Rider on their list of the best children's fiction of the year.
In 2020, Booklist included Where the World Ends on their "Top 10 Historical Fiction for Youth" list.
Awards for McCaughrean's writing :
| Year | Title | Award | Result |
| 1987 | A Little Lower Than the Angels | Whitbread Award for Children's Book | Winner |
| 1988 | A Pack of Lies | Carnegie Medal | Winner |
| 1989 | A Pack of Lies | Guardian Children's Fiction Prize | Winner |
| 1994 | Gold Dust | Whitbread Award for Children's Book | Winner |
| 1996 | Plundering Paradise | Nestlé Smarties Book Prize (6–8 years) | Bronze |
| 1996 | Plundering Paradise | Whitbread Award for Children's Book | Shortlist |
| 2000 | A Pilgrim's Progress | Blue Peter Book Award for Book of the Year | Winner |
| 2001 | The Kite Rider | Blue Peter Book Award for Best Book to Keep Forever | Winner |
| 2001 | The Kite Rider | Nestlé Smarties Book Prize (9–11 years) | Bronze |
| 2002 | Stop the Train | Nestlé Smarties Book Prize (9–11 years) | Bronze |
| 2002 | Stop the Train | Carnegie Medal | Highly commended |
| 2004 | Smile! | Nestlé Smarties Book Prize (6–8 years) | Bronze |
| 2004 | Not the End of the World | Whitbread Award for Children's Book | Winner |
| 2005 | The White Darkness | Whitbread Award for Children's Book | Shortlist |
| 2006 | A Pack of Lies | ALSC Notable Children's Recordings | Selection |
| 2007 | The White Darkness | Booklist Editors' Choice: Books for Youth | Selection |
| 2007 | Stop the Train! | Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults| | Selection |
| 2008 | The White Darkness | ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults | Selection |
| 2008 | The White Darkness | Michael L. Printz Award | Winner |
| 2011 | The Death-Defying Pepper Roux | ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults | Selection |
| 2011 | The Death-Defying Pepper Roux | American Library Association Rainbow List | Top 10 |
| 2018 | Where the World Ends | Carnegie Medal | Winner |
| 2018 | Where the World Ends | Independent Bookshop Week Book Award | Winner |
| 2020 | Where the World Ends | Michael L. Printz Award | Honor |

## Selected bibliography

* A Little Lower Than the Angels (1987)
* A Pack of Lies (1988)
* Gold Dust (1993)
* Plundering Paradise (1996) (US title: The Pirate's Son)
* Forever X (1997)
* The Stones Are Hatching (1999)
* The Great Chase (2000)
* Stop the Train! (2001)
* The Kite Rider (2001)
* Showstopper! (2003)
* Smile! (2004)
* Not the End of the World (2004)
* The White Darkness (2005)
* Cyrano (2006)
* Peter Pan in Scarlet (2006)
* Tamburlaine's Elephants (2007)
* The Death-Defying Pepper Roux (2009)
* Pull Out All The Stops! (2010) (US title: The Glorious Adventures of the Sunshine Queen)
* Robin Hood & the Golden Arrow and a World of Other Stories (2011)
* The Positively Last Performance (2013)
* The Middle of Nowhere (2013)
* Where the World Ends (2017)
* The Supreme Lie (2021)