Narinder Dhami (born 1958 in

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunian ...

) is a British children's author.

Early life

Dhami's father was an Indian immigrant from the

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

who arrived in the UK in 1954, and her mother is English.Narinder Dhami
at randomhouse.com (accessed 25 March 2003) She grew up in a multi-cultural environment, with Asian Indian and western cultures both major influences in her life, and was educated at Wolverhampton Girls' High School and then Birmingham University, where she graduated in 1980.

Career

Award-winning children's author Narinder Dhami started working as a teacher, and for the next nine years she taught in primary and secondary schools in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

and in the London borough of

Waltham Forest The London Borough of Waltham Forest () is a London borough in north-east London, England. Its population is estimated to be 276,983 in 2019. It borders five other London boroughs: Enfield to the north-west, Haringey to the west, Hackney to t ...

. During this time, she began writing stories for teenage magazines, and contributed many photo-stories to the now-defunct '' Jackie'' magazine, published by DC Thomson. Eventually, She gave up teaching for a full-time writing job. For the last few years, she has been writing contemporary realistic fiction about children growing up in Britain. Her Babes quartet about three British Asian girls is extremely popular with girls between 9 and 14 years of age. She writes a wide range of children's books for pre-teens on other subjects and now increasingly for older teens too. Her characters reflect the British urban ethnic mix. Books for 2009 included a teen thriller ''Bang, Bang You're Dead!'' May 2009, which won or was shortlisted for a large number of book awards in 2010, and the first book in a series of six for 9+ readers called ''The Beautiful Game'' about girls' football. A further four books in the series were published in 2010 and the last of the six appeared in Jan 2011. Dhami was one of the authors of the internationally successful ''

Rainbow Magic ''Rainbow Magic'' is a British children's fiction brand originally created by Working Partners and now owned by IoM Media Ventures. It is best known for the children's books published by Orchard Books. The books are ghostwritten by a number of ...

'' series, written under the name of

Daisy Meadows ''Rainbow Magic'' is a British children's literature, children's fiction brand originally created by Working Partners and now owned by IoM Media Ventures. It is best known for the children's books published by Orchard Books. The books are ghostw ...

. Her most famous and biggest selling book was ''Bend It Like Beckham'', a novelisation of

the film The Film is a 2005 Indian thriller film directed by Junaid Memon also produced along with Amitabh Bhattacharya. The film stars Mahima Chaudhry, Khalid Siddiqui, Ananya Khare, Chahat Khanna, Ravi Gossain, Vaibhav Jhalani and Vivek Madan in lead ...

. Now she lives in

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

with her husband and her cats, continuing her writing career. A book that came out in March 2015 is a thriller for 9-13 year olds called 'Thirteen Hours', It was published by

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

Bibliography

Around 300 books published to date. Key titles include the following: *''The Beautiful Game - Team Jasmin'' (

Orchard 2010 An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of larg ...

) *''The Beautiful Game - Golden Girl Grace'' (

) *''The Beautiful Game - Georgie's War'' (

) *''The Beautiful Game - Lauren's Best Friend'' (

) *''The Beautiful Game - Hannah's Secret'' (

Orchard 2009 An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of larg ...

) *''The New Adventures of the Wishing Chair (various)'' (

Egmont Egmont may refer to: * Egmont Group, a media corporation founded and rooted in Copenhagen, Denmark * Egmond family (often spelled "Egmont"), an influential Dutch family, lords of the town of Egmond ** Lamoral, Count of Egmont (1522–1568), the bes ...

) *''Bang, Bang, You're Dead!'' ( Corgi Books) *''Angel Face'' (

Collins Collins may refer to: People Surname Given name * Collins O. Bright (1917–?), Sierra Leonean diplomat * Collins Chabane (1960–2015), South African Minister of Public Service and Administration * Collins Cheboi (born 1987), Kenyan middle- ...

) *''Changing Places'' ( OUP) *''Annie’s Game'' *''Animal Crackers'' *''Bindi Babes'' *''Bollywood Babes'' *''Bhangra Babes'' *''Sunita’s Secret'' *''Dani’s Diary'' *''Bend It Like Beckham'' (2002) (

Hodder Headline Headline Publishing Group is a British publishing brand and former company. It was founded in 1986 by Tim Hely Hutchinson. In 1993, Headline bought Hodder & Stoughton and the company became Hodder Headline Ltd. In 1999, Hodder Headline was acqui ...

) *''Superstar Babes'' (2008) *''Cinderella'' (2003) ( Puffin Books) *''Lady and the Tramp'' (2003) ( Puffin Books) *''Sleeping Beauty'' (2003) ( Puffin Books) *''The Aristocats'' (2003) ( Puffin Books) *''The Jungle Book'' (2003) (Puffin Books) *''The Lion King'' (2003) (Puffin Books) *''101 Dalmatians'' (2004) (Puffin Books) *''Alice in Wonderland'' (2004) (Puffin Books) *''Bambi'' (2004) (Puffin Books) *''Pinocchio'' (2004) (Puffin Books) *''Beauty and the Beast'' (2004) (Puffin Books) *''Snow White'' (2004) (Puffin Books) *''Cinderella: A Princess at Last'' (2004) (Puffin Books) *''Jasmine'' (2004) (Puffin Books) *''Tinker Bell: Peter Pan and Never Land'' (2004) (Puffin Books) *''The Little Mermaid'' (2005) (Puffin Books) *''Robin Hood'' (2005) (Puffin Books) *''The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' (2005) (Puffin Books) All books published by

unless otherwise specified.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dhami, Narinder English children's writers 1958 births Living people People from Wolverhampton Alumni of the University of Birmingham People educated at Wolverhampton Girls' High School