Sue Mayfield

"I was born in 1963 in the north east of England and lived for the whole of my childhood in a place called Cullercoats, which is on the coast, about ten miles east of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

As a child I loved the sea and being outdoors and spent most of the time I wasn’t at school riding ponies and getting muddy. (I’m still at my happiest when wearing my wellies.) I loved school and was a dreadful swot! I played hockey very badly, sang in the school choir and enjoyed acting in plays.

When I went to sixth form college I became more and more interested in theatre and planned, at that stage, to be an actor. After I left school I studied for a year in the United States (in Alabama) and was a pizza waitress too. Then I went to Oxford University to study English. While I was there I acted in lots of plays, and also fell in love with my husband Tim. We got married about a week after my final exams and went to live in Bristol, where I trained - and then worked - as an English teacher.

Although I’d always enjoyed writing, I didn’t start doing it seriously until I was in my mid-twenties and pregnant with my first child. I live in Cheltenham now but from 1988 until 2003 I lived in Halifax, a small town in West Yorkshire surrounded by fantastic hills. My first book Timeline:Women in Power (Dryad 1988) was published the year we moved to Halifax. It was a non-fiction book for Keystage 4 students about the role of women in British history and it was fascinating to research. Soon after writing it (when I was pregnant for the second time - I think there must be something creative about all those hormones!) I began work on I Carried You On Eagles’ Wings which was my first novel …and I’ve been writing fiction ever since.

Since the early 1990’s I’ve been regularly visiting schools to do Book Week days and writing workshops. I love reading my work to groups of young people and getting their feedback and responses. I also find that talking to readers sometimes gives me new ideas. During this time I’ve also worked as a Creative Writing tutor for adult learners and as a Toddler group leader and Church youth worker."

Photo of Sue Mayfield by Kate Newlove