Family's love of books helped author break stereotypes

An author who said she defied expectations to write children's books believes her family's love of reading helped her fulfil her dream.

Nadia Shireen, from Wellington in Shropshire, has had a series of picture books published by Penguin, but recalls growing up at a time when people from south Asian backgrounds were rarely seen as writers.

She said: "I was growing up in the 80‘s and authors were not people who like me or like my mum or dad.

"If you were south Asian, you [were] obviously encouraged to get a good education and get a steady [job], become a doctor, a lawyer, accountant, or any of those things," she added.

What made the difference, she believes, was being encouraged to read from a young age.

She said: "I was lucky enough to grow up in a house of readers.

"Every week my mum would take me to Wellington library and she would go off and get Agatha Christies and I would go off into the children's book area and I would have a whale of a time just kind of going through all the books.

"It was just woven into everyday life," she said.

Shireen said she enjoyed making her own magazines and comics when she was a child, but ended up studying law at university and then went to work for a magazine publisher for 10 years.

Although it was not books, she admitted it was "still a pretty interesting media career".

Drawing was still a passion though, and she said: "If you've got that creative energy in you, you'll find that you can't really keep a lid on it even if you try really hard.

"I just kept doodling like I've always done," she added.

"I just couldn't stop doodling and drawing."

In 2007 she was accepted on to an MA course in Children's Book Illustration at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, as a mature student.

The picture book she produced for her graduation show got the attention of publishers, which she said was a "dream come true".

Her debut book Good Little Wolf received a mention in the Bologna Ragazzi Opera Prima Award and won the UKLA Book Award.

She has since been shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize and the Waterstones Children's Book Prize and said: "I could never in a million years imagine that this is what I'd be doing."

Shireen's first book was published when she was in her 30's and looking back, more than a decade later, she said she felt incredibly lucky.

"I get to sit at home, write funny stories about animals, draw the pictures and then, you know, go see my name on the cover of books and get to meet my readers, which I absolutely love.”

She also said she got a "real buzz" out of seeing the drawings made by children today.

But she said it had been very different when she was young, and children like her had not been "encouraged to follow their creative dreams".

She said: "I'm not trying to blame anyone, but it's just not something we saw, was it?

"We didn't see brown faces being people who wrote."

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