Malorie Blackman

Children's Laureate from 2013 to 2015, Malorie Blackman is the author of the multi-award-winning Noughts and Crosses series, which deals with issues of race and ethnic identity. She has written many books for children and teenagers, including Pig-Heart Boy, which was shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal and adapted into a BAFTA-winning television series. Blackman is particularly celebrated for writing about a diverse range of characters, including those who are often marginalised in society, such as teenage fathers in her novel Boys Don't Cry. In 2008 she was honoured with an OBE for her services to children's literature.