The Writers of Wales Database

DAVIES, N

10 Laburnum Walk, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, NP7 5JX
Website: http://brookesia.wordpress.com/
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Nicola Davies was born in Birmingham but both parents were from the Gower. She trained as a zoologist at Kings College Cambridge. She worked as a presenter, assistant producer and writer for the BBC Natural History Unit, before becoming an author. She was a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University until October 2008 but now writes full time, non fiction and fiction, for children and adults (under the pen name Stevie Morgan), and is involved with a variety of arts projects for children.

Nicola has written adult novels and newspaper columns, children's television series and children's non fiction and fiction for Walker Books, BBC Worldwide and Kingfisher Books, including several in the award winning Walker Books 'Read and Wonder' series: Big Blue Whale, Bat Loves the Night, One Tiny Turtle, Surprising Sharks, Ice Bear and White Owl, Barn Owl. Surprising Sharks became a Boston Globe Honour Book in October 2004. Ice Bear, about Polar bears and Inuit in the Arctic, ( illustrated by Gary Blythe) was published in 2005 and won the English Society Award for young non fiction.  White Owl, Barn Owl published in May 2007 and Who's Eating You are on the selected readings list of the DfES and SLA schemes to promote reading in younger children and boys - 'Book Ahead' and 'Boys Into Books'. 

Nicola’s 2004 title for Walker, Poo: A Natural History of the Unmentionable, illustrated by Neal Layton, has appeared in more than ten foreign language editions, including Chinese and Korean. It has won two prizes for science books in Italy and was shortlisted for the most prestigious children's book award in Germany in 2006. It formed the basis of an exhibition at the Rothschild Museum of Natural History In Tring in 2006; a sister exhibition travels around Italian cities, including Genoa, for the Science Festival in October 2007, and Rome at the Zoological Gardens in November 2009. Suprising Sharks was also made into an exhibition at the Rothschild Museum, which ran until July 2008 then transferred to the Natural History Museum in Kensington. Also illustrated by Neal Layton, Extreme Animals, was published in the UK and US in Autumn 2006, and was widely reviewed, including a full page review in the New York Times. Who's Eating You: A Guide to Parasites was published in October 2007 and was shortlisted for the American Association for the Advancement of Science Subaru Prize 2008. Just the Right Size: Why Mice are Little and Elephants Are Big was published Spring 2009, with further titles to follow in 2010. 

Home, Nicola’s first novel for older children, was published by Walker in 2005 and was shortlisted for the Brandford Boase First Novel Award. Her collection of stories for young people Up On The Hill, was published in February 2008 and was serialised on BBC Radio Devon. A series of short novels for younger children, The Silver Street City Farm Series will be published by Walker Books in 2011, and The Walker First Book Of Nature a collection of poems for younger children, about the natural world will be published in 2010.

In addition to writing, Nicola works with children in schools all over the country helping to develop their writing skills, using natural history as a trigger for creative writing. She regularly runs Writing Squad creative writing workshops for Academi, in Pembrokeshire. She recently worked at the Oriel Gallery in St Davids, with children from St Davids secondary school, writing in response to the paintings of Brendan Stuart Burns. She has also appeared at literary festivals such as Edinburgh, Oxford, Cheltenham, the Festivalletteratura in Mantova and the Tuttistorie Festival in Sardinia. She has a long association with the Young Cultural Creators project (projects include work with the Grant Museum of Comparative Anatomy and the Royal Geographic Society's climate change exhibition, Tate Modern and Tate Britain) and is involved in various other projects with children that cross the boundaries between arts and sciences, including regular residencies for the organisation 'Farms For City Children' which takes inner city children to work on its farms in Devon, Gloucestershire and West Wales. 

Under her pen name, Stevie Morgan, Nicola has written humorous columns for the Independent, and three adult novels for Hodder and Stoughton. Until October 2008 she taught on the MA in Writing for Young People at Bath Spa University, now one of the foremost Creative Writing courses in the UK, with several award winning children's authors amongst its alumni.

Nicola's most recent publication is Gaia Warriors a book for 12 -16 year olds about climate change, with an afterword by James Lovelock. It was published in November 2009 and has been well received by literary festival audiences, schools librarians and reviewers. Nicola is currently finishing a novel for 10-12 year olds, and staring work on the next book in the 'Poo Series', about animal poisons.

Reviews

"…A marvellous meeting with a Blue Whale…fills the reader with wonder…stranger than any fiction…"
The Observer

"… gentle, unhurried, lyrical …"
Books for Keeps

"...Nicola Davies is an author who gets the balance exactly right. Her scientific love of the particular translates into the precise well chosen language that so appeals to children. There is not a word too many,there is not a word out of place ... near-poetic narrative..."
Times Educational Supplement

"...If only all natural history books were as well pitched as this!..."
The Independent 

"...I would not change a single word!..." 
Books for Keeps
 
"...I was caught, hook, line and sinker..."
The Guardian

"...Layton’s…crystal-clear diagrams, diverting strip panels, and spirited spot art all interpret biology in their own deliciously weird way. Davies is the best thing to happen to biology since the invention of the filmstrip, and kids who thought they’d never care about a science precept will be delighted to acquire killjoy information to spout during sci-fi horror movies..."
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, September 2009

"...An engaging, understandable, refreshingly focused look at a topic every child has considered..."
100 Scope Notes blog, 8/10/09


Selected Publications:
Fiction (for adults) (as Stevie Morgan)
Delphinium Blues (Hodder & Stoughton, 1999)
Fly Away Peter (Sceptre, 2000)
Checking Out (Hodder & Stoughton, 2002)

Fiction (for children)
Home (Walker Books, 2005)
Up On the Hill (Walker Books, 2008)
Welcome to Silver Street
Escape From Silver Street
Silver Street Spring
Silver Street Ahoy (Walker Books, 2011)

Poetry (for children)
Walker First Book of Nature (Walker Books, 2011)

Non Fiction (for children)
Big Blue Whale (Walker Books, 1997)
Bat Loves the Night (Walker Books, 2000)
One Tiny Turtle (Walker Books, 2000) 
Surprising Sharks (Walker Books, 2002)
Wild About Dolphins (Walker Books, 2000)
Poo: A Natural History of the Unmentionable (Walker Books, 2004)
Ice Bear (Walker Books, 2005)
Extreme Animals (Walker Books, 2006)
Who's Eating You (Walker Books, 2007)
White Owl, Barn Owl (Walker Books, 2007)
Just the Right Size (Walker Books, 2009)
Gaia Warriors (Walker Books, 2009)
Talking Animals How and Why Animals Communicate (Walker Books, 2010)
Dolphin Baby (Walker Books, 2010)
Grow Your Own Monsters (Frances Lincoln, 2011)