Ruth Rendell Award 2026 shortlist announced

Maise Chan

Maisie Chan is a multi-award-winning author. She won the Jhalak Prize and Branford Boase with her debut children’s novel Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths. Her new novel Nate Yu’s Blast From the Past was one of the Best Children’s Chapter Books for the Summer (The Observer) and The Week Junior Book of the Week. She writes a young fiction series called Tiger Warrior and has written for the bestselling anthologyThe Very Merry Murder Club.

Maisie’s upcoming publishing includes a picture book, Chi Chi the Panda publishing by Hachette Children’s group in June and another middle-grade title with Piccadilly Press in 2027. She lives in Glasgow with her family and dog.

Piers Torday

Piers Torday is an award winning and bestselling writer for children, whose work has been translated into 14 languages and adapted for the stage. Books include The Last Wild trilogy (Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize), There May Be a Castle and The Lost Magician series (Teach Primary Book Award). Plays include The Box of Delights and Christmas Carol (Wilton’s Music Hall). He co-founded the Paul Torday Memorial Prize for Debut Novelists Over 60 and has been a judge for the Guardian Prize, the British Book Awards and the Costa Book Awards. His latest book is The Wild Before.

Nicola Garrard

Having taught English in secondary schools for twenty-three years, including fifteen years at an Islington comprehensive. Her first novel, 29 LOCKS, was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize and the Mslexia Children’s Novel competition, and longlisted for the Branford Boase Award 2022 and the Berkshire Book Award. It was picked by Suzi Feay in the Financial Times as one of their ‘Best Books of 2021’.

Nicola Garrard has appeared at the Hay Festival of Literature and Arts, Chichester Festival and Petworth Festival Literary Week and on BBC Radio London. She gives regular talks for schools, libraries and colleges (including for World Book Day), as well as prisons. Her words and poetry have been published in The Frogmore Papers magazine, IRON Press Publishing, Mslexia magazine, The Guardian and the Writers & Artists Yearbook Guide to Getting Published, and by the Poetry Book Society.

Nicola lives in West Sussex with her wife, three children and dog. Her family is typical of modern Britain, with roots in England, Scotland, Hungary and Trinidad. She currently works at Minority Matters, a charity which aims to empower young people from isolated communities through engagement projects, and is also an active supporter of the Trussell Trust.

Nathanael Lessore

Nathanael Lessore was born in Camberwell, Southeast London, as one of eight children to French and Madagascan parents. Although he has spent most of his life in Peckham, Nathanael has also lived in Paris, Strasbourg and Singapore.

His debut book Steady For This was shortlisted for the Voto Carnegie Medal for Writing 2024 and won the Branford Boase Award 2024. His second book King of Nothing was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2025 and the Voto Carnegie Medal for Writing 2025. He is also the author of What Happens Online, and writes stories that show his Southeast London childhood as the funny, warm, adventurous world that wasn’t always represented as such.

Maz Evans

Maz Evans is the author of over fifteen books for children, including the bestselling Who Let the Gods Out series. Maz started out writing in journalism, working as a television critic as well as a feature writer. During the course of her career, she has written for several different national titles.

Maz has been a creative writing lecturer going on to found Story Stew, a creative writing programme that has made its way to different primary schools and literary festivals. She has also founded Book Buddy, which works to get more books placed into various school libraries.

MC Grammar aka Jacob Mitchell

MC Grammar is the creation of award-winning teacher and rapper Jacob Mitchell, who went viral in 2019 after a video of him rapping popular children’s book The Gruffalo received over 5 million views. Having struggled in school himself, the father of two credits his discovery of books as his turning point with education. Jacob believes no child should be left behind, and that there needs to excitement, challenge, inclusion and, most importantly, fun in the classroom! The Adventures of Rap Kid is his debut children’s series.

Rob Biddulph

Rob Biddulph is a British children’s author and illustrator. He began his career as an art director, working for publications such as The Observer Magazine and ShortList. Biddulph’s debut picture book, Blown Away, was published by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2014. The book won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize in 2015.

Following his debut, Biddulph published several other picture books, including GRRRRR! (2015), Odd Dog Out (2016), Sunk! (2017), Kevin (2018), and Show and Tell (2019). His works are known for their distinctive illustration style and rhyming text.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Biddulph launched the online initiative #DrawWithRob, providing free draw-along videos for children. The project gained widespread attention and led to a Guinness World Record for the largest online art lesson, achieved in May 2020 with over 45,000 participants.

Biddulph’s books have been translated into multiple languages and published internationally. In addition to the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, his titles have been shortlisted for awards such as the Kate Greenaway Medal and the British Book Awards. In 2021, Biddulph published Dog Gone and Peanut Jones and the Illustrated City, the latter marking the start of a middle-grade illustrated fiction series. The sequel, Peanut Jones and the Twelve Portals, was released in 2022.

Laura Henry-Allain MBE

Laura Henry-Allain MBE is an award-winning international educationalist, storyteller, producer and consultant.

She is the creator of the well-loved, award-winning, first Black British animation, JoJo and Gran Gran global series, developed and produced by CBeebies, and is the series producer. Laura has a new children’s animation that is currently in development.
Laura has worked with several global brands, including Paramount, Mattel, Moonbug, Hasbro, John Lewis, Comic Relief and Bafta.

Her bestselling children’s books include My Skin, Your Skin and My Family, Your Family. Her new book, Maya and Marley, centres on an Adventure Playground.

Laura is a board member of the Children’s Media Foundation and vice president of The British Association of Early Childhood Education.