Malorie Blackman was born in 1962 in London. She trained in computer science and worked in computing before publishing her first book at the age of 28. Malorie writes children’s novels, young adult novels, picture books, short stories and readers for early, and more confident readers. In addition, she writes television scripts, including episodes of the children’s television drama, Byker Grove, and original dramas for CITV and BBC Education. Her stage play, The Amazing Birthday, was performed in 2002.

Her novels for older children include: Hacker (1992), the story of Vicky, who saves her father from being wrongly convicted of stealing from the bank after hacking into the bank’s computer to solve the crime herself; Thief! (1995), about a child who is transported into the future after being accused of a crime she did not commit; and Pig-Heart Boy (1997), the diary of 13-year-old Cameron, who needs a heart transplant. The latter book which she subsequently adapted as a series for television won several awards, including a BAFTA for best children’s drama in 2000.

Her best-known books for young adults are the multi award-winning Noughts & Crosses series which includes Noughts & Crosses (2001), Knife Edge (2004), Checkmate (2005) and Double Cross (2008). Although most of Blackman’s characters are black, until this series she had chosen not to foreground the issue of race or ethnic identity, but rather to depict characters without an overt focus on race. With Noughts and Crosses, Blackman addressed racial issues more overtly, depicting a world in which black people, or ‘Crosses’, are the ruling elite and white people, or ‘noughts’, are confined to minority status, denied legal rights and work in menial jobs. The novels focus on the frustrated love affair between a black girl, Sephy, and a white boy, Callum.

In 2004, she also wrote a novel entirely in verse, Cloud Busting (2004), which won a Nestlé Smarties Book Prize (Silver Award) the same year. In 2007, she edited Unheard Voices, an anthology of stories and poems to commemorate the bicentenary anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade, and in 2009 she contributed to Free?, a book of stories celebrating Human Rights.

In 2005, she was honoured with the Eleanor Farjeon Award in recognition of her distinguished contribution to the world of children’s books; she was also awarded an OBE in 2008. Her most recent novel is Noble Conflict (2013).

Biography via childrenslaureate.org.uk