Lauren St John


Lauren St John is an author born in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. She is best known for her children's novels including The White Giraffe and Dead Man's Cove which won her a Blue Peter Book Award in 2011.
WWW laurenstjohn.com

Life and career

Lauren St John was born in December 1966 in Gatooma, Rhodesia. When she was eleven, St John and her family moved to a nature reserve called Rainbow End's farm in Gadzema. It was later the focus of her memoir, Rainbow's End and many of her children's books are influenced by the nature reserve in which she grew up.
After studying journalism in Harare St John moved to London where she was the golf correspondent for The Sunday Times for almost a decade.
In 2011, St John won the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award for her book Dead Man's Cove, about an eleven year old girl called Laura Marlin who becomes a detective. It is the first in a series of books. Dead Man's Cove was also shortlisted for a Galaxy National Book Award for Children's Book of the Year. The book was optioned by Centurion Television in 2016.
As well as writing, St John has also done work with the wildlife charity, Born Free Foundation. She became involved after contacting the Foundation while she was running a school conservation project called Animals Are Not Rubbish in 2009.

Children's fiction

Early Readers series
Animal Healer series
Laura Marlin mysteries
  • Dead Man's Cove
  • Kidnap in the Caribbean
  • Kentucky Thriller
  • Rendezvous in Russia
  • The Midnight Picnic
  • The Secret of Supernatural Creek
Wolfe and Lamb MysteriesKat Wolfe Investigates
Stand-alone novels

Young adult fiction

The One Dollar Horse series
  • The One Dollar Horse
  • Race the Wind
  • Firestorm
Stand-alone books
  • ''The Glory''

Adult fiction and non-fiction

Fiction
  • The Obituary Writer
Non-fiction
  • Rainbow's End: A Memoir of Childhood, War and an African Farm
  • ''Hardcore Troubador: The Life and Near Death of Steve Earle''