About

Nicola Penfold is a children’s writer. She writes adventure books about the natural world.

Nicola Penfold

Nicola Penfold was born in Billinge and grew up in Doncaster. She studied English at St John’s College, Cambridge. Nicola’s worked in a reference library and for a health charity, but being a writer was always the job she wanted most.

Nicola writes in the coffee shops and green spaces of North London, where she lives, and escapes when she can to wilder corners of the UK for adventures. She is married, with four children and two cats, and is an avid reader of children’s books.

For inspirations, writing habits, favourite authors and more, please check out the Frequently Asked Questions!

Interview Links

Interview with Reading Zone on writing Between Sea and Sky
July 2021 Future worlds, pollinators, seaweed

Rewilding and our connections with the natural world
April 2021 Article for the Climate-Fiction Writers League

Debut Diaries: One year on with Tizzie Frankish from SCBWI
March 2021 Reflecting on writing book two and a year of lockdowns

Career spotlight: an interview with St John’s College, Cambridge
March 2020 My debut children’s novel and going into London lockdown

Debut journeys: an interview with Words and Pictures
February 2020 A walk through a local nature reserve with Helen Simmons

Blog tour with Lily and the Fae: inspirations for Where the World Turns Wild
February 2020 Last Child in the Woods, The Lost Words, Nature Deficit Disorder

Journeys in fiction: blog tour with Liam at bookwormhole
February 2020 Children’s stories featuring a journey

Rewilding yourself and your children: blog tour with my shelves are full
February 2020 Connecting with nature

Meet the author: an interview with Ian Eagleton at The Reading Realm
February 2020 On becoming a writer