Elen Caldecott

My favourite stories are ones where very ordinary people do very extraordinary things. These are the kind of stories I set out to write: real life, but with the promise of adventure.

I recently graduated with an MA in Writing for Young People from Bath Spa University. Before becoming a writer, I was an archaeologist, a nurse, a theatre usher and a museum security guard. It was while working at the museum that I realised there’s a way to steal anything if you think about it hard enough. I either had to become a master thief, or create some characters to do it for me – and so I began my debut novel, HOW KIRSTY JENKINS STOLE THE ELEPHANT.

THE SHORT KNIFE (Andersen, 2020)

It is the year 454AD. The Roman Empire has withdrawn from Britain, throwing it into the chaos of the Dark Ages. Mai has been kept safe by her father and her sister, Haf. But when Saxon warriors arrive at their farm, the family is forced to flee to the hills where British warlords lie in wait. Can Mai survive in a dangerous world where speaking her mother tongue might be deadly, and where even the people she loves the most can’t be trusted?

Review for OPERATION EIFFEL TOWER:

"One of the strengths of Elen Caldecott’s breezy stories for 7-11s is that they show successful unconventional families. Her latest novel, OPERATION EIFFEL TOWER (Bloomsbury £5.99), concerns four children who are made unhappy by mum and dad’s arguments, but are determined, when the marriage ends, to patch it up. They plan a romantic dinner in Paris for their parents, but find they can only afford dinner by the Eiffel Tower on the local crazy-golf course. The story reaches a ­realistic but hopeful resolution" - Nicolette Jones, Sunday Times

Prizes:

OPERTION EIFFEL TOWER was shortlisted for the 2013 Red House Children's Book Awards.

Elen won the Lennox Author Award (November 2010), and was longlisted for a 2013 UK Literacy Association Book Award.

THE SHORT KNIFE won the Tir na n-Og Awards 2021 for children’s and young people’s literature in the English Language category

Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for THE SHORT KNIFE