Hilary Robinson (author)

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Hilary Robinson (born January 23, 1962 in Paignton, Devon) is a children’s author, award winning radio producer and feature writer.

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[edit] Background

The second of four daughters of university lecturers, Robinson grew up during the civil war in Zaria, Nigeria, before moving to Dorset and then the mining heartland of West Yorkshire. Her father, Peter Turner, a noted authority on David Livingstone[1], spearheaded the building of a non profit making private school in Zaria which she attended with other local and overseas children including, theatre director, Rufus Norris. She is the cousin of both Jonathan Luxton, lead french horn with the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon and Felicity Forrest, former opera singer with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. Her early literary influences include Dr. Seuss, to which she was introduced by American missionaries, and Noel Streatfeild.

[edit] Career

Robinson worked at Radio Aire, TV-am and Yorkshire Television in a variety of roles ranging from programme secretary, researcher and scriptwriter before joining the BBC’s Faith and Ethics unit.

The author of over thirty books including The Princess’s Secret Letters series[2], her first book Sarah The Spider was published in 1995. The following year the sequel, Sarah The Spider, Prima Spiderina was short-listed for Best Picture Book by the English Association. She collaborated with illustrator Nick Sharratt on both Mixed Up Fairy Tales, which was featured in November 2007 in the critically acclaimed CBS action drama The Unit, and Spells and Smells for which she was shortlisted by Nottinghamshire City Council for the Experian Big Three Award in 2002. Later that year, Ken Livingstone and the Greater London Council invited Robinson to write Pick It Up – an environmental book featuring litter detectives – which was read at high profile launch by Sir Richard Attenborough. Her work is published in a number of different languages including Greek and Norwegian. She dedicates much of her free time to working on reading initiatives with schools in inner city areas.

In September 2003 Robinson visited Durban, South Africa as part of an 8 person delegation formed by Leeds City Council to celebrate the Durban Book Appeal in which 60,000 donated books from Leeds were distributed at the Festival of Books, organised by READ, to resource understocked libraries in schools. She worked in schools and libraries in many of the most deprived townships and attended the opening of the new Hambanathi library.

In the summer of 2007 Robinson toured the Navajo regions of New Mexico, Utah and Arizona with Bonnie Jo Hunt, of Mad Bear Press, to look at forming links between British and Native American junior schools.

Currently producing BBC Radio 2’s Good Morning Sunday with Aled Jones, recent documentaries include Lenny Bruce Is Dead presented by Simon Amstell, In His Hands, a powerful documentary about domestic abuse, presented by Candi Staton and Turn Your Radio On, presented by Don Maclean – the wit and wisdom of Ray Stevens. To mark the two hundredth anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade Robinson produced A Voice Of Her Own – the story of Phillis Wheatley narrated by Oscar-nominated actress Sophie Okonedo, and Private Peaceful to mark Remembrance 2007 with Robson Green. In 2004 she won the Gillard Gold Award for Religious Programming and was highly commended with an Andrew Cross Award for D Day – 60 Years On - a live broadcast from Normandy.

Robinson has written features for The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, The Yorkshire Post, Practical Parenting and other specialist press.

[edit] Personal

Robinson is married and has two daughters.

Her interests include skiing and walking in the Yorkshire Dales, Dorset and Devon.

Literature and music is her great passion, from classical to contemporary and emerging artistes. She was recently credited with giving British singer-songwriter Emily Maguire her first break on network radio.

Hilary Robinson is represented by Sophie Hicks at Ed Victor Ltd.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] References

  1. ^ Turner.Livingston.A Beginner's Guide. Hodder & Stoughton. 2002
  2. ^ Robinson & Stanley. Little Tiger Press. London. 2006