Meet the judges
Meet our 2021 judges for My Twist on a Tale!
Annie Everall OBE, Director of Authors Aloud UK
Annie is Director of Authors Aloud UK, an agency organising school visits and tours in the UK and Internationally for children’s authors and publishers. She serves on the committees of the CILIP School Libraries Group, ASCEL, FCBG and the Literacy and Reading section of IFLA. She is also a Trustee for Read for Good. She is a children’s book reviewer and is a judge for the Pupil Library Assistant of the Year Award. She was awarded the OBE in 2001 for services to children’s books and libraries.
Jemma Wallace, children’s author
Jemma Wallace won the 'One in four' new writer competition in 2018; a competition run by Orion imprint, Trapeze, and the charity Gingerbread, to highlight the fact that a quarter of families in the UK are headed by a single parent. She has since published her debut novel The Truth About My Mother in February 2020. Jemma lives near Edinburgh with her eight-year-old son, Archie.
Deborah Maclaren, Director of Love Reading
Deborah Maclaren is a serial entrepreneur, business owner and strong commercial leader who has been in business for 25 years. She has been MD of Love Reading since mid-2018, bringing together her media background, passion for books, her love of literacy, marketing knowledge and her commercial acumen.
Emma Braithwaite, Head of Skills and Development at Reading Agency
Emma leads The Reading Agency’s work engaging children, young people and families with reading for pleasure; helping them to build their skills and confidence and develop a lifelong love of reading.
Fay Lant, Head of School Programmes at the National Literacy Trust
Fay is Head of School Programmes at the National Literacy Trust and was previously a secondary school English teacher.
Catherine Kulli, Support Representative at Coram Beanstalk
Cat is a Support Representative for Coram Beanstalk. She supports volunteers who go into schools and share their love of reading in one-to-one sessions with primary school children. Cat is passionate about encouraging children to read and loves hearing the success stories of those who have switched on to reading!
Cathy Cassidy, children’s author
Cathy Cassidy is a popular children’s author, her books are a warm and uplifting blend of friendship, family and fitting in aimed at the 9-14 age group. She was an art teacher, a magazine journalist and an agony aunt before becoming a full-time writer. Cathy lives in North Wales with her husband, two unruly lurchers and Mary Shelley, the tortoise from her recent Lost & Found series. She has two grown up children. For more information on Cathy's books, go to www.cathycassidy.com
Tillie Amartey
18-year-old Tillie Amartey has amassed an impressive CV in a short time, working on shows for Sky, CBBC and Channel 5.
Currently she is a series regular playing “Chloe” on CBBC’s popular show Almost Never. This year will also see her appear on Channel 5’s new four-part drama The Teacher alongside Sheridan Smith.
Earlier this year she took on her most intense performance to date as a homeless schoolgirl in Jimmy McGovern’s Moving On.
Known for her versatility and ability to inhabit roles in both comedy and serious drama, she was also handpicked by David Walliams for her debut film role in his TV adaptation of Ratburger. Her break-out performance as troublesome Tina Trott in the adaptation won her plaudits from critics and industry peers alike. She has also appeared on BBC’s Doctors and CBBC’s Creeped Out, which is now available on Netflix.
Acting aside, Tillie is also known for her flair for presenting and has fronted shows on both CITV and CBBC. Recently, the BBC commissioned a new twelve-part documentary for Tillie which saw her giving kids an insight into the workings of the music industry. She was given the chance to interview well known names such as Liam Payne, Dermot O’Leary, Craig David and other industry leaders.
Tillie’s hard working spirit has yielded a favourable impact on her young life so far and she is a champion of fighting for what you believe in with heart, integrity and commitment. She wants to continue to inspire her generation to be good people; to be kind; to be genuine and to give back where you can.
Dr Zaahida Nabagereka, Penguin Random House
Zaahida is Programme Manager for Lit in Colour, working between the Runnymede Trust and Penguin Random House. Lit in Colour is a campaign designed to increase the representation of authors of colour in English Literature taught in UK schools.
Zaahida completed her doctorate at SOAS focusing on linguistic imperialism in Uganda and how it affects contemporary literature production in indigenous languages. She co-founded Afrikult, a literary organisation seeking to widen access to African literatures through interactive workshops in 2014. Since then, Arikult has devised and facilitated workshops at schools, festivals and conferences in England, Wales, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya. Zaahida has guest lectured at SOAS, UCL, UEA and was a Visiting Lecturer on the BA English programme at City, University of London.