About ME:

My Story

I was born in India and moved to the UK when I was three.

I always enjoyed reading but never really saw myself as creative – goes to show…

I have always loved reading, and would borrow as many books as I could from the library. And I still love the quiet timelessness of that space, where people come and go but the stories are always there for a new generation.

That is where the idea of a library of forgotten dreams came from. Where bottles of dream threads were stored instead of books. Ready for casting into new dreams for new minds.

After growing up in London, I became a doctor and researcher. I’ve lived and worked in Oxford, North Carolina, USA, and various parts of London and the home counties.

Now I live in Cambridge with my two kids, husband, and our majestic and very elegant cat.

During a science association internship at the BBC, I wrote some articles for the Health News team. That experience got me into writing, so I studied creative writing in my spare time .

I found my tribe – children’s writers are the nicest people and I made some great friends over the course of many courses.

My first novel didn’t really go very far,, but it taught me a lot – getting a regular writing habit, handling rejection, dealing with critiques, and deciding when to move on to something new…

The next book I wrote was Dream Hunters. At first it was called the Library of Forgotten Dreams (that love of libraries, remember?).

As I wrote this book from my heart, I realised several more things – planning really helps the words flow in a more organized way (for me at least) and that writing and editing a book is like reverse layering an onion. From the core of the idea, building out the people, the places and the problems.

Dream Hunters is published by Simon and Schuster in the UK and will be translated into Dutch by the publisher Uitgeverijdefontein, who have titled it De bibliotheek van vergeten dromen.

So there you go, a bit about me, why I write and how I got here. And a picture of an onion!

On this site you’ll find news and reviews, background material from the book and some resources for schools and parents (nothing too boring I promise!).

Thanks for dropping by.

Nazima