Helen Dunmore is an award-winning novelist and poet, as well as a children's writer. She has published eight collections of poetry, and has written nine novels, and two collections of short stories. She won the Orange Prize for Fiction with her novel 'A Spell of Winter' and her novel 'The Siege' was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the Whitbread Prize for Fiction, an was serialized on BBC Radio 4. Her adult novel 'House of Orphans' was also shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction. Her writing for children includes short stories, novels and poetry.