ABOUT

' Jill Hucklesby proves herself to be a writer of books for teens worthy of comparision with the biggest names in children's literature. Samphire Song is one of the great horse stories of recent times ...' Egmont

My writing career began in television as a team writer for the TeddyBears series on ITV. I was nominated for the Television Arts Performance Showcase comedy writing award for a sitcom pilot, Decapitating Cupid, screened at BAFTA in 2001. I've also worked closely with Endemol UK on a tV adaptation of Deeper Than Blue, as the commissioned writer, and with Screen First on the creation of original animation shorts.

In 2015, I wrote, produced and launched a new play, Monte Cassino Morning at Brighton Festival Fringe. Directed by Chris Bond, it starred RSC actor, David Fielder, and West End performer, Nicky Croydon Bond. The play was nominated for the Best New Play Award and for a Broadway Baby 'Bobby' award for best show reviewed.

I've also worked with the brilliant Brighton youth theatre company, The Theatre Workshop. My monologue, Sunny Side Up, was the focus of a devised work which premiered at Brighton and Edinburgh Festival Fringe, receiving 5* reviews. Recently, I returned as dramaturg for a writing development week for TTW's older group, Hungry Wolf, helping two groups develop new plays in one week.

Current theatre projects include a new play, The Roof Garden, longlisted by the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where I have recently worked on the play award reading team; Dead Reckoning, a 45 minute radio play about aviator, Amy Johnson; White Horses, a full-length play exploring the issue of assisted death and Buds, a short play about teens facing their biggest challenge. The Roof Garden radio script won an award in the Green Stories initiative in 2019. A radio play, 'Moon Tide,' was showcased at the Ink Festival in Suffolk in April, 2023.

My four books for teens, Deeper Than Blue, Last Kiss of the Butterfly, If I Could Fly and Samphire Song have collectively been nominated for fourteen awards and are published in several languages. Deeper Than Blue won the 1066 Schools' Book Award in 2008 and Le Prix Vendee Lire in France in 2014. If I Could fly was nominated for the Waterstone's Children's Book Award in 2011. My two books for younger readers, based on true-life RSPCA rescues, are published by Scholastic.

My new novel for adults, set in Malta in WW2, is nearing completion.

I have run creative writing workshops at schools, colleges, libraries, bookshops and at major literary festivals, including Hay-on-Wye and Brighton, and most recently at the beautiful Hastings Contemporary Gallery and Ropetackle Arts Centre in Shoreham-by-Sea. More are planned for 2024.

I live near the sea in East Sussex with my family and Max, the retriever.