Sian Pattenden is an author and illustrator.
At 16 she entered a playwrighting competition at the Soho Poly Theatre. The result, Steven Newman Doesn’t Eat Quiche, went to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Sian was the youngest fringe playwright ever.
Sian worked at Smash Hits then many other magazines, meeting people who were called things like ‘Kylie’ or ‘Robbie Williams’ or even ‘Bobby Gillespie’. She wrote an informative book called How To Make It In The Music Business about jobs in the, er, music business.
1,734 interviews with pop ‘stars’ later, she started writing children’s fiction with The Awful Tale of Agatha Bilke, the first in a three-book series published by Short Books in 2006. The initial book in a new set of adventures called The Peppers and the International Magic Guys has just been selected for inclusion in the Spring 2012 Richard and Judy Book Club.

As an illustrator she has drawn the playing cards for ‘Unhappy Families’; the artwork for each Agatha Bilke book, the North London Arts Map & Arts Guide and Neil Strauss’ Everyone Loves You When You’re Dead … And also for the Art Brut Brilliant! Tragic! comic.

There is also a stop-motion Outsider Music film – featuring the plasticine Luke Haines flying – for Haines’ Outsider Music project.

Plus a promo for Haines’ album Nine and a Half Psychedelic Meditations on British Wrestling of the 1970s and Early ’80s:

*** WORKSHOPS!
“Highly recommended to get them on the literary bandwagon, and a great outlet for those creative energies.” The Guardian Guide

Sian often visits schools and libraries, maybe in disguise, discussing story-telling and/or providing illustration and writing workshops. She has appeared at the Cheltenham Book festival, the Edinburgh Book Festival, The Big Draw workshops and at many schools.

FACTS:
* Sian appeared in Doctor Who as a child, playing Young Tegan (wearing a wig).
* She has written for publications including the Face, the Guardian, Select magazine, Smash Hits & NME – and been on the radio.
* She was one half of 100% Ponies, signed to Kung Fu Fighting Records in Paris.
* Sian goes by her alter-ego of Sian Superman for Outsider Art ‘n’ that.

The Awful Tale of Agatha Bilke was shortlisted for the Glen Dimplex New Writers’ award; the Branford Boase award and the Sheffield Children’s Book Award. It was Children’s Book of the Week in the Sunday Times.