Sheridan Winn - Biography
The idea for The Sprite Sisters books popped out in a flash at 1.30am on 22nd January 2007, as Sheridan Winn sat in bed writing her diary. A few days later, she approached Piccadilly Press’s Brenda Gardner and The Sprite Sisters were born.
Although everything then seemed to move very fast, Sheridan had waited thirty years to be the storyteller she always wanted to be.
At the age of 23, on completing her degree, she published her first book, Barns & Granaries. She then trained as a teacher. For the next 25 years Sheridan worked with author and illustrator, Chris Winn, as his business and creative manager. Together they produced a number of children’s picture books, along with the ‘Mad Gadget’ cartoon, which was the most popular strip in the Daily Telegraph’s Young Telegraph for over seven years. Mad Gadget followed the adventures of a crazy boy inventor and was based on their son, Alex, along with their daughter, Rosie.
In 2001, Sheridan became a freelance journalist specialising in profiles of business leaders and lifestyle features for international newspapers and magazines. Since then, her work has been published on four continents.
The Sprite Sisters have changed everything. The stories draw on her own experiences growing up in a large country house full of cupboards and eccentric aunts, and as the eldest of four sisters who all believe in magic.
Like the Sprite Sisters, she and her sisters had huge grounds and woodland to play in, and were surrounded by animals and wildlife. With that came a sense of freedom that few children experience today. Sheridan has tried to capture that feeling in her books.
Everywhere in the stories relates to somewhere real. The landscape is Norfolk, ever dear to her heart.
She has also drawn on her own childhood experiences such as losing the pet gerbils which features in Book 1, The Circle of Power; filling up a car with grasshoppers, as Ash does in Book 2, The Magic Unfolds; and camping in the woods in the old caravan which features in Book 3, The Secret of the Towers.
‘When I write, I feel the Sprite Sisters around me,’ says Sheridan. ‘They feel like my friends. It’s as if I am standing with them in the kitchen or running beside them over the lawn. I know what they will say next and how they feel. I see the story unfolding in front of me, like a film. I am watching it and hearing it, but I am also part of it. At the same time, I am looking down on Sprite Towers. I know where each character is and what they are doing and thinking. I can see the family moving around the house and grounds.’
Sheridan plans to write a series of five Sprite Sister stories, which will all take place within one year of the lives of Flame, Marina, Ash and Ariel.
Since the publication of The Circle of Power, she has been busy giving talks and workshops to schools. She is a lively and engaging speaker and greatly enjoys the chance to interact with her readers.
Sheridan lives in Norfolk and has two grown-up children. She finds walking in the countryside a good way to think up ideas for her books, and always carries a notebook.
