Amanda was born in Hong Kong and survived both a convent boarding school and a Jesuit boys’ school before being summarily ejected from the latter. She is the author of the bestselling satirical novels SELLING OUT and SECRET ADMIRER (both published by Pan) which have both received critical acclaim and have been translated into several languages.

She gets her thirst for adventure from her parents who met in the jungle in Borneo where her mother had set up a hospital and her father, a former Gurkha officer and Oxford-educated linguist, was probably up to no good. Her parents decamped to Hong Kong where her father established a business importing his two great loves – champagne and whisky. Sadly, he died when Amanda was three before she could get to know him better although she’s pretty sure they would have shared the same sense of humour…

Her redoubtable Glaswegian-born mother ensured that Amanda not only travelled the world before she was ten but also passed on her great love of different people and cultures.  Amanda speaks four languages and is currently learning Bulgarian as she now owns a tumbledown cottage near the Black Sea which she bought after flying out with the money strapped to her left leg (Bulgaria is still a cash economy!)

The first book in her major new teen trilogy, KUMARI, Goddess of Gotham, was published by Piccadilly Press in January 2008. It was written as a tribute to her mum, who died a couple of months before Amanda got the idea for a series which would reflect her own exotic childhood. The second, KUMARI, Goddess of Secrets, was published in May 2008 and the third, KUMARI, Goddess of Destiny, was published on 31 October 2008. All three books have received excellent reviews. Goddess of Gotham was longlisted for the 2008 Waterstone’s Children’s Book Award and is currently longlisted for the Doncaster Book Award. It was also Redhouse Book of the Month and all three titles were featured as Book of the Month for Lovereading4kids. Goddess of Gotham has been translated into Portuguese, Turkish and Malay and is currently being translated into German.  

Amanda has a degree in drama and her first telly job was as a member of the Communist Resistance in ’ALLO ‘ALLO. This involved running around with a dachshund tucked under one arm and deploying her best cod French accent. It’s all been dramatically downhill since. A broadcaster as well as an actress and novelist, Amanda appears regularly on BBC radio and LBC and was a contracted writer to the hit series WEEKENDING on Radio 4. She also teaches media skills to authors and runs immensely popular workshops for children and adults. She has conducted a love coaching phone-in from the sofa of Richard & Judy and wooed the viewers on Channel 5 Live. She won an award at the Hungarian Film Festival for a short film she produced called PROs AND CONs and has a number of projects currently in development.

She has written for, or contributed to, The Evening Standard, The Times, New Woman, US Cosmopolitan, Bulgaria’s Vagabond and Company Magazine. She lives in London.

For media and publishing enquiries, please contact her agent Peter Cox at Redhammer Management.