Believe it or not, I am not the laid back, Mr Cool you may have mistaken me for! I’m actually quite passionate about several things:

• The value of education in helping to change people’s fortunes. People know this instinctively. Why else would many parents bend over backwards to make sure their kids have more education than they were able to?

• The value of libraries.

• The strange-to-some notion that writers should get a decent rate of pay and contract.

For all these reasons I’ve been a member of the Society of Authors for many years. They do a sterling job of helping writers get appropriate terms of engagement, holding publishers to account where appropriate, and recognising good practice by them too, and campaigning for changes in the law and interpreting changes.

A few years ago I put myself forward to serve on the committee of the Society’s Educational Writers Group. As my three year tenure will be coming to an end soon, I’ve put myself forward for election to the Management Committee of the Society. That’s the group that decides policy and strategy. I think it’s very important that that committee includes a person who has been a teacher, and is still heavily involved in education, and writing for educational publications.

If you’re a member of the Society of Authors, you will know that the elections to the Management Committee will be taking place soon. The candidates’ statements have just been published on the Society’s website, in the form of a pdf. Here’s a link to that: Society of Authors Candidates Statements.

I’d like an opportunity to represent educational writers’ interests at a higher level. So, if you’re happy with the fact that I won’t go around kissing babies any time soon, or promising a huge financial input to your bank account, please vote for me!