Meet the author

Malorie Blackman.

Writer · United Kingdom · b. 1962

Malorie Blackman: British author of Noughts & Crosses (with BBC adaptation), Pig-Heart Boy and Hacker — defining UK YA / middle-grade voice on race, identity and family, Children's Laureate 2013–2015.

Malorie Blackman is a British author born in 1962, one of the defining contemporary UK YA / older-middle-grade voices and Children's Laureate 2013–2015 (the first Black writer to hold the role). Best known for Noughts & Crosses (2001), a YA dystopian race-relations novel set in a Britain where Black and white power structures are inverted, and its sequels (Knife Edge, Checkmate, Double Cross, Crossfire, Endgame). Blackman has also written middle-grade fiction (Pig-Heart Boy, Hacker, Cloud Busting) and picture books. Her voice is direct, plot-driven and morally serious. A core contemporary UK YA / middle-grade author for ages 11+, particularly important to inclusive-reading shelves.