Barbara Bleiman is Co-Director of the English and Media Centre (EMC), a development centre for English and Media teaching in secondary schools. Having completed an MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck she has had short stories for adults published in the Mechanics' Institute Review, and short stories for young people published in EMC anthologies, Shazkaz and Other Stories, Best of Both and, most recently, Literary Shorts. She has also written and edited numerous books for the classroom. Her literary agent is Elly James at HBB Agency. She is currently working on a second novel.