Meet the Authors
Patricia Aspinall
Patricia Aspinall has a first degree in Education and an M.Phil in Linguistics from the University of Cambridge. After teaching English as a Foreign Language in schools and Colleges of Further Education, she joined UCLES (University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate) where she was responsible for running and developing EFL examinations including PET, FCE, CAE, and CPE. She is now a freelance author and language consultant and has written numerous books and other materials on language development. She specialises in books that prepare students for examinations such as the Certificate in Advanced English and the Business English Certificates.
Cambridge English Readers
Frank Brennan
Frank Brennan comes from the North West of England and is a graduate of the University of Wales. He has worked as an actor and writer in a theatre group for schools before going on to teach English and Drama in secondary schools both in the UK and in Singapore.
He has edited books of short stories and plays; written literature guide books for secondary students; published collections of original short stories and plays and is currently working on another collection of short stories.
His interests include music, especially jazz and roots music, and history.
Cambridge English Readers
- Circle Games
- Tales of the Supernatural:
Finalist: The Language Learner Literature Award 2005 - The Fruitcake Special and Other Stories
- Three Tomorrows
- Windows of the Mind
Colin Campbell
Colin Campbell has worked in English teaching for almost 30 years. He has been a teacher, teacher-trainer and consultant in a number of countries, including Poland, Spain, Italy, Ireland and England. He has also been involved in setting up language schools in Italy and Poland. Some of his favourite memories from his career are: co-hosting a Learning English television series for local television in Italy; recording Irish songs for a Children's coursebook in Poland; writing original readers for Cambridge University Press and, still, teaching students anywhere.
In addition to teaching, training and writing, Colin Campbell does voluntary counselling work in London.
Cambridge English Readers
Penny Hancock
Penny Hancock has English teaching experience in Italy, Greece, Morocco and the UK. She also teaches in Primary schools and has run courses in creative writing for adults.
Her Readers for Cambridge University Press address issues such as adoption, bereavement and prejudice within the romantic genre. Within High Fences was a finalist for the Extensive Reading Foundation award. Penny lives and works in Cambridge and has three children.
Cambridge English Readers
- A Love for Life
- Just Good Friends
- Love in the Lakes New!
- Within High Fences:
Finalist: The Language Learner Literature Award 2006
Jeremy Harmer
Jeremy Harmer is currently a course tutor and designer for the online MATESOL at the New School, New York, but he has taught extensively in both the UK and in Mexico, where he worked for many years.
As both a coursebook writer and the author of key titles on EFL teaching methodology, Jeremy is a frequently invited speaker at conferences and seminars all over the world. When not teaching, writing or travelling, his interests include listening to and playing music (he plays piano, guitar and viola with more passion, perhaps, than skill), and this obsession with music is reflected in his two readers for Cambridge University Press.
Cambridge English Readers
David A Hill
David A Hill trained and worked as a primary school teacher in the UK before moving into ELT; he has an M.Phil in Applied Linguistics from Exeter University. David has taught EFL full time in Italy and Serbia, and worked for the British Council for 18 years, 12 of which as the Council's state sector teacher trainer for Northern Italy. Since 1998 he has worked out of Budapest as a freelance consultant, travelling annually to around 10 different countries for work with students, teachers, teachers' associations, ministries and the British Council. He has worked for IATEFL since 1988, holding various posts in the Association, and is currently the Coordinator of the Literature, Media and Cultural Studies SIG. His main interests within ELT are the teaching of young learners and teenagers, materials development, literature in language teaching and teacher training. David spends half of his year writing educational materials.
Outside the ELT world David is a published poet and translator of poetry and a naturalist who has written many articles for professional journals on ornithology and botany. He plays guitar, piano, harmonica and sings in a gigging blues band, and is also a performer of traditional English folk song. He is an expert on Art Nouveau architecture and design, and is especially fond of William Morris.
Cambridge English Readers
Other Cambridge University Press publications
- Turning the Corner (Cambridge Collections)
- The Alphabet Book (Cambridge Middle East)
Margaret Johnson
Margaret Johnson is a writer, artist and teacher who lives in Norwich, Norfolk with her partner and their young son. She is a graduate of the renowned Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia and has written plays, screenplays and children's fiction as well as six Cambridge English Readers. Whatever she writes, Margaret likes to try to include some humour and says, 'the biggest thrill of all is making people laugh.'
Cambridge English Readers
- All I Want
- Different Worlds
- In the House Coming soon!
- Jungle Love
- Murder Maker
- Next Door to Love
- Wild Country New!
Sue Leather
Sue Leather is an ELT consultant and writer with over 25 years of experience in the field. She has a background as a teacher, teacher trainer and school manager. Sue now runs her own consultancy group and has educational projects all over the world.
In addition to her consultancy and training work, Sue is a writer and editor of learner fiction.
Cambridge English Readers
- Bad Love
- Dead Cold
Winner: The Language Learner Literature Award 2005 - Death in the Dojo
- Dirty Money
- Hotel Casanova
- Just Like a Movie
- The Amsterdam Connection
- The Big Picture
- The Way Home
Richard MacAndrew
Richard MacAndrew has worked in ELT for over 30 years. He has taught in Finland, Sweden, Malaysia and Great Britain. He has been a freelance writer since 1996, writing a number of readers for the Cambridge English Readers series, as well as a variety of books for other British and American EFL publishers.
His interests, other than writing, include walking in the Yorkshire Dales, listening to the music of Jerry Garcia, reading numerous detective stories and thrillers, and watching Scotland play rugby – preferably in his favourite city, Edinburgh.
Cambridge English Readers
- A Death in Oxford
- A Puzzle for Logan
- Blood Diamonds
- Inspector Logan
- Logan's Choice
- Strong Medicine
Finalist: The Language Learner Literature Award 2007 - The Black Pearls Coming soon!
- The Lahti File
- The Penang File
- The University Murders
Alan Maley
Alan Maley has been in the field of TESL for over 40 years. After being at the University of Leeds under Peter Strevens in the early 1960s, he worked as an English Language Officer with the British Council for over 25 years. His career took him to places as diverse as Yugoslavia, Ghana, Italy, France, P.R. China and India.
He left the Council in 1988 to take over as Director-General of the Bell Educational Trust in Cambridge, where he stayed for 5 years. Between 1988 and 1992 he was the Chair of IATEFL and was very active in promoting links with other teachers' associations worldwide, especially in Central Europe. In 1993 he took up a position as Senior Fellow in the Department of English Language and Literature at the National University of Singapore, where he stayed for 5 years.
He subsequently set up and directed the Master's programme in ELT at Assumption University Bangkok. (1999–2004).
He currently divides his time between work asVisiting Professor at Leeds Metropolitan University, writing, short-term teaching assignments, mainly in SE Asia, and freelance consultancy work. He has been active in the field of publishing for many years, especially in the area of resource books for teachers. At present he is working on a study of the phenomena of repetition and reformulation in language teaching.
Cambridge English Readers
Other Cambridge University Press publications
- Drama Techniques in Language Learning (with Alan Duff, Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers)
Antoinette Moses
Antoinette Moses is a writer and playwright. Her plays have won several competitions and have been produced or received rehearsed readings in Norwich, Cambridge, Ipswich, London and Paris. Her books range from media studies and poetry to a guidebook to Athens, where she lived for four years. Antoinette teaches creative writing at the University of East Anglia where she is working on a PhD on verbatim (documentary) theatre. She has also worked as an editor, journalist, film festival director and for music and poetry festivals. Two of her Cambridge English Readers have won awards from the Extensive Reading Foundation: Let Me Out and Jojo's Story, which has been described by one reviewer as 'one of the most important books of all time'.
Cambridge English Readers
- Apollo's Gold
- Dolphin Music
- Frozen Pizza and Other Slices of Life
- John Doe
- Jojo's Story
Winner: The Language Learner Literature Award 2004 - Let Me Out
Winner: The Language Learner Literature Award 2007 - The Girl at the Window
Helen Naylor
Helen Naylor has taught English to adults for over 30 years in language schools in the UK. Currently, she's working as a freelance writer and has published books on grammar and Cambridge exam preparation. She also works as a writer and examiner for Cambridge ESOL on many different papers.
When she's not working, Helen's interests include playing tennis, skiing, being by the sea and food – cooking it and eating it.
Cambridge English Readers
J.M.Newsome
Julia Newsome is now a writer. After taking a BA in Drama at Manchester University, Julia taught EFL in Athens for 22 years. She wrote and commissioned teaching materials for local schools and later joined Heinemann as a commissioning editor. She took the RSA TEFLA at the British Council there. Since leaving Greece in 1995 she has been a freelance translator, editor, publisher and materials writer for Penguin and Longman among others, and has continued examining and teaching EFL. She has lived and worked in Belgium, Yugoslavia and Zimbabwe, and now concentrates on writing fiction and scripts.
Her other interests include travel, exploring Cumbria (where she now lives) and rural Greece, and volunteering at Shakespeare's Globe.
Cambridge English Readers
- Nelson's Dream New!
Philip Prowse
Philip's interest in reading began in Egypt in the early 1970s when as a British Council Officer he developed materials to support class readers. His British Council career also took him to Portugal, Greece and Poland. Returning to the UK at the start of the 1980s he became Principal of a large residential language school and teacher training college in the UK, leaving in the early 1990s to become a freelance trainer and materials writer.
Throughout his career he has written teaching materials including major primary, secondary and adult courses, as well as a number of highly-successful readers. He has run training courses and spoken at conferences in Europe, Africa, Asia and South America. Philip is also Reviews Editor of the English Language Teaching Journal.
Cambridge English Readers:
Other Cambridge University Press Publications:
- Activate your English (with Barbara Sinclair)
Sarah Scott-Malden
Sarah Scott-Malden studied French and Italian at Bristol University before moving to Italy for three years where she had her first teaching jobs in Pisa and Florence.
She took the RSA Diploma in TEFL and then took up a teaching post with the Bell School of Languages, at first in Norwich and then in Saffron Walden. She taught at the Saffron Walden school for eleven years before moving with her family to California. While with the Bell School, Sarah worked as a teacher and a teacher trainer.