Our Writers

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Valerie Mendes

Valerie Mendes was born in Buckinghamshire and educated at North London Collegiate School. After taking a Double Honours Degree in English and Philosophy at Reading University, she began her career by writing and broadcasting several short scripts for the BBC. She was interviewed for the job by Olive Shapley, a famous broadcaster, who told her to “write as you speak”. It is advice she has never forgotten.

Publishing proper followed, first as a commissioning editor for the part-work publisher, Marshall Cavendish, where she wrote many features and columns herself; then with several major book publishers, including Oxford University Press and Penguin Books, where she edited English Language Teaching lists and developed a passion for encouraging children to read.

In July 1990, Valerie established her own editorial consultancy, Wordwise.

Valerie began writing when she was six and had her first short story published in the school magazine. Some of her early poems were published in The Voice of Youth. While at Penguin Books, Kaye Webb published two of Valerie’s short stories in Puffin Post: The Best Guy in Albert Street and New Year Cat.

Valerie’s first picture book, Tomasina’s First Dance, inspired by Wytham, a village in Oxfordshire, was published by Little, Brown in 1992. A series of non-fiction English Language Teaching books for Ladybird followed. Her second picture book, Look at Me, Grandma! was published in 2001 by The Chicken House.

“Picture book texts are phenomenally difficult to get right,” Valerie says. “Their brevity gives them the discipline of a brilliant poem – there mustn’t be a single word out of place. They need a clarity of vision and a single strong message the child can immediately relate to and want to read again and again.”

In October 1998 Valerie took the plunge: she stopped editing other people’s books to concentrate on her own novels. “I stood to fail big time. But I thought: nothing venture, nothing gained. It was the right decision. I took a deep breath and threw myself into the depths of my own work. Slowly, I began to swim.”

Girl in the Attic, published by Simon & Schuster in July 2002, was chosen by W H Smith as one of six titles in their New Kids’ Authors summer promotion. It sold more than 25,000 copies in its first three months.

Thirteen-year-old Nathan is furious when Mum hauls him off to Cornwall for Christmas and then tells him they are to move there for good. He wants to be back in London with Dad and his best friend, Tom. But then he finds a cottage – and a girl. The girl in the attic. Who is she, and what is the family secret that haunts her life? This gripping novel explores the strengths of friendship and the inescapable, binding pull of love

Coming of Age, published in 2003, is set in Hampshire and Italy.

When her mother is killed in a riding accident, nine-year-old Amy is mute and traumatised. She cannot remember what happened; she is haunted by a nightmare she cannot explain. She becomes obsessed with her father, clinging for dear life to their relationship. Six years later, the chance discovery of a postcard gives her the clue she needs to uncover the truth about the past. It takes her to Italy, to a man she has never met. Was he her mother’s lover – or her killer? The threads of the past lead inexorably back to the present and, as she gradually remembers those horrific moments she thought forever buried, finally – and in more ways than one – Amy comes of age.

Lost and Found, published in June 2004, is set in Oxford.

Daniel is completely alone in the world. Until he meets bright, beautiful Jade and her little brother, Finn. Could they offer a new beginning? But someone is after the child: a figure from the past. A figure who holds the key to a secret that could threaten Finn’s future – and wreck Jade and Daniel’s new-found love.

The Drowning, published on 1 August 2005, takes us back to Cornwall.

When a tragic accident blows Jenna’s life apart, riddled with grief and guilt she has no choice but to cancel all her plans to go to London, to train as a professional dancer, to use what she has been told she has: star quality. But as her star dims on the horizon, Jenna finds that things are not what they seem. Who was really to blame for the accident – and what will Jenna do when she discovers the truth?

Valerie has now completed her fifth novel, Lover’s Cross. Set in Hampshire during 1897, and London and Hampshire during March to September, 1939, it is her first historical novel for young adults. She is now working on a second historical novel, The Choice, set in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, and St Ives, Cornwall, in 1936 against the backdrop of the abdication of Edward VIII.

Valerie’s passion for writing picture books continues with The Creepy Crawly Thing, Two Peas in a Pod, The Tallest Tree in the World, Stripey and Pandaman all available in manuscript.

In 2006, Valerie moved to a small Edwardian villa in Woodstock, Oxfordshire. When she’s not writing, she loves to walk in the gardens of Blenheim Palace, where ideas for another good story seed, sift and blossom.

Valerie has the great good fortune to be the mother of the theatre and film director Sam Mendes CBE.