For the very first Spotlight I have decided to focus on Armadillo Magazine’s founder, our very own Mary Hoffman.
Mary was born in 1945, went to Cambridge in 1964 to read English literature and then to University College London from 1968-70 for a diploma in Linguistics. Her first book was written in 1970 and published in 1975. She has now written over 90 books and her successful ‘Stravaganza’ series is progressing towards an impressive six titles. ‘Stravaganza City of Secrets’ was nominated for the 2009 Carnegie Medal and her latest story Troubador has been nominated for the 2010 award. She won the Prix Polar Jeunesse (the children’s category of a book prize judged by teenagers) in Cognac, France for the French translation of ‘The Falconer’s Knot’ and her next book, ‘The Great Big Book of Families’ is due for release in January – keep an eye on the magazine for a review!
Mary was born in what she describes as a ‘dull little town’ but moved to London at the age of three living in Lavender Hill near Clapham Junction. English was perhaps unsurprisingly her favourite subject at school and if writing had not worked out as a career she would have liked to have been an opera singer!
Mary now lives in a lovely converted barn in Oxfordshire where since passing over the editorship of Armadillo she spends time writing, learning about Italian literature and reading. As well as this she continues to review for Armadillo, maintains her Book Maven Blog, Twitters and occasionally visits Facebook.
Mary and her eldest daughter Rhiannon successfully conceived and ran Armadillo for ten years, we are indebted to them for creating such an excellent resource, hope to take it from strength to strength and wish Mary every success with her writing.
For more information about Mary and her books visit her informative author website.
Editorial