Sex and Drugs and Writing Wrongs: The Joy of Writing for Young Adults

Patrice Lawrence is an award-winning writer of stories for children and young people. Orangeboy, her debut book for young adults was shortlisted for the Costa Children’s Book Award, won the Bookseller YA Prize and Waterstones Prize for Older Children’s Fiction and has been shortlisted for many regional awards. Indigo Donut won the Bristol Crimefest Prize for YA and was book of the week in The Times, Sunday Times and Observer and one of The Times’ top children’s books in 2017. Rose, Interrupted, published in July 2019, was children’s book of the week in the Sunday Times. Her books for younger readers include Diver’s Daughter – a Tudor Tale, part of Scholastic’s Voices series inspired by the UK’s Black and Asian history. She was born in Brighton, reviews for Radio 4’s Saturday Review and loves Bruce Springsteen and Korean indie music.