Lindsay Littleson Menu
Lindsay Littleson

Hi! Welcome to my website. My name’s Lindsay Littleson and I’m a children’s author living in East Renfrewshire, Scotland.

I’m the author of Guardians of the Wild Unicorns, a middle-grade novel starring the unicorns of mythology and legend.  Another of my novels is The Titanic Detective Agency, a fresh retelling of the tragedy with a Scottish twist.  Secrets of the Last Merfolk came out in 2021 with Floris Books and The Rewilders and Euro Spies have both been recently  published by Cranachan Books.

My first children’s book, The Mixed Up Summer of Lily McLean, won the 2014 Kelpies Prize and is published by Floris Books.
The sequel to The Mixed Up Summer, The Awkward Autumn of Lily McLean, was published in March 2017 and A Pattern of Secrets, a Victorian mystery set in Paisley, was published by the fabulous Cranachan Books in 2018.

Please take a look at my website to find out a bit more about me and my books!

Resources for teachers are available for all of my novels and I am happy to do author visits to schools, libraries and book festivals.

Books

Blog

A Race Through Mud

2nd January 2024

It was in early January 2014 that I decided to enter the Kelpies Prize and it was definitely a life-changing decision!  I am so glad that I decided to ‘chunk the challenge’ and wasn’t overwhelmed by the prospect of writing 40K words in six weeks. The first draft of The Mixed-Up Summer of Lily McLean was sent off with only a couple of days to go before the end of February closing date. Then all I had to do was cross my fingers and hope. You can see by my expression how thrilled I was when the golden envelope was opened and I was told The Mixed-Up Summer was going to be published.

So, after ten years of writing children’s novels, has being a published author been all that I imagined?  The answer is probably no! Some aspects have been beyond my wildest dreams; being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and signing 200 free books for pupils at the Edinburgh Festival School Gala Day both spring to mind. But when I stood on that tiny stage clutching my giant comedy cheque, I had no idea that publication didn’t mean I’d won the race. I was at the starting line – and I’d entered one of those Tough Mudder endurance runs by mistake.

To be honest, I was  totally clueless when my debut novel came out.  I’d no idea that 10,000 children’s novels are published in the UK every year and that it’s not a level playing field. The world of children’s publishing is dominated by celebrities and frankly, my cat gets more likes on social media than I do.

 

My books have not flown magically into the hands of delighted readers. A LOT of hard work has been required to get noticed at all and sometimes, the constant effort can feel overwhelming. I am so grateful for the support I have received from my local Waterstones branches and from independent bookshops, particularly The Ginger Cat in Bridge of Weir and The Book Nook in Stewarton. Last year, I loved doing creative writing workshops at the Ginger Cat and have enjoyed some fab school events with The Book Nook.

Ten years ago, I was also naive about author income. At the beginning, I fondly imagined that I might one day be able to live on my royalties but soon realised that was never going to be a possibility. If I was going to make a living as a writer, my income would need to come from school, festival and library visits. But over the last ten years, school budgets have come under increasing strain and now I am often asked to do free visits. Unless there’s a particular reason, I say no, partly because I don’t want to undermine other authors and partly because my bills need to be paid!

Luckily, I’ve got my priorities worked out now and try and play to my strengths. As an ex-primary teacher , I really want to encourage reading for pleasure, so I’ve sent hundreds of letters to schools this year, in an effort to inspire young readers. I’m also keen to support teachers, so I create  comprehensive teachers resources for all of my novels and it’s an amazing buzz to know that my books, The Titanic Detective Agency in particular, are being read in schools all over the UK.

Ten years later, fame and riches have not materialised and there are daily frustrations (often the banging head against a wall sort) but I have no regrets about becoming a children’s author. Every time I get a lovely message from a parent telling me I’ve inspired their child or from a young reader saying they love my books, I feel I’ve won that Tough Mudder race after all.

 

European Adventures

26th August 2023

It has been a busy year so far!

It started with the huge excitement of my son Matt being on television, playing Limbo in  BBC1 and Synchronicity Films brilliant adaptation of Andrew O’Hagan’s Mayflies.

Mayflies was an excellent, heartbreaking production and I am hardly biased at all.

In March, I did my first international author visit, and spent  a wonderful three days  doing workshops at the European School in Luxembourg, plus a lovely afternoon exploring the city. So grateful to the organisers for making it such an enjoyable visit.

My European adventure was followed by Unicorn Weekend at Stirling Castle, which was tremendous fun. I did four creative writing workshops and four readings in the Great Hall over the weekend, all themed around wild unicorns.

After that came the excitement of the launch of Euro Spies in April. Grateful thanks to Waterstones in Silverburn for organising a lovely launch, to all the kind booksellers who welcomed me in for signings and to the schools who engaged so enthusiastically in code cracking and clue solving events!

 

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Euro Spies is a fun spy caper set in six European cities – Paris, Bern, Rome, Venice, Vienna, Brussels and Amsterdam and I was lucky enough to be on a trip to Rome around the same time. There were so many perfect promotion opportunities. And so much pizza and pasta.

   

The summer term was packed with school visits, including a super afternoon as guest author at Bo’ness Academy’s fantastic Junior Red event and a lovely trip on the ferry to Kirn Primary in Dunoon. There were also some delightful meet-ups with fellow writers, at the Children’s Books North Social  and the Scottish children’s publishing picnic in Edinburgh.

Thankfully, despite being so busy drinking Prosecco and chatting to writing pals, I’ve managed to fit in some writing. My first reading book for schools, Terror on Titanic, is being published by Badger Learning on the 8th of September. Terror on Titanic relates the terrifying real-life experiences of Ruth Becker, who was just 12 years old when she boarded the doomed ship with her mother and younger siblings.


Currently, I am researching and writing another reading book for schools, again based on a real-life historical disaster, as well as doing line-edits for a new novel, which is coming out next year with Floris Books. More details about this one coming soon!