Linda Hoy is a British author who is best known for her works for children and young adults.
Her first novel, Your Friend, Rebecca, was published in 1981. It is now a set text in many British comprehensive schools, and is often used to help young people deal with bereavement.Compassionate Friends - Dealing with Bereavement
Another novel, Haddock 'n' Chips, was the winner of the 1994 Children's Book Award. A novel based on the fortunes of Sheffield United football team, United on Vacation, was shortlisted for the same award in 1995. Her first television play, Emily, was the winner of the Silver Award for Drama in New York in 1985. She received a Writers' Award for New Writing from the Arts Council in 1999.
She was a Fellow at York St John University between 2004 and 2007, and a Fellow at the University of Sheffield between 2007 and 2010. She has taught creative writing at Sheffield Hallam University and regularly leads writing workshops in schools and universities. Her daughter is a US-based academic and writer Mikita Brottman.
A new non-fiction work, The Effect was published on 28 September 2012. Exploring the connections between time, spirituality and quantum physics, it claims to "offer the strongest evidence yet for the existence of a soul and an afterlife".Interview with The Baltimore Sun, 23 November 2012
She lives in Sheffield, UK, and is represented by the Robert Dudley literary agency.
Books Your Friend, Rebecca, The Bodley Head, 1981 The Damned, The Bodley Head, 1983 Emmeline Pankhurst (Biography), Hamish Hamilton, 1985 The Alternative Assembly-Book, Longmans, 1985 Poems for Peace (Ed.), Pluto, 1986 Nightmare Park, HarperCollins (Armada), 1987 Kiss, Walker Paperbacks, 1989 Ring of Death, HarperCollins (Armada), 1990 Haddock 'n' Chips, Walker, 1993 United on Vacation, Walker, 1994 The Pit, Ginn & Co, 1995 Nightmare Express, HarperCollins, 1996 The Oracle, Ginn & Co, 1997 Dear Poltergeist, Walker Paperbacks, 2000 The Effect, O Books, 2012
References
Sources Royal Literary Fund - Linda Hoy The Effect at O-Books The Effect website