Dennis Hamley is the founder of LiterArties. He is also, as a member of Writers in Oxford, a contributor to the group’s literary activities.
Dennis read English at Jesus College, Cambridge and has a PhD from Leicester University. His writing career has lasted for over fifty years. His first book was published in 1962. Since then he has written over eighty books, some for schools and teachers, but mainly for children and young adults. These include: The War and Freddy (shortlisted for the Smarties Award), Hare’s Choice, the six medieval murder mysteries in The Long Journey of Joslin de Lay sequence and his four ‘crossover’ novels, Spirit of the Place, Out of the Mouths of Babes, Ellen’s People and Divided Loyalties. He is at present working on The Second Manfrom Porlock, a novel about Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Before taking early retirement in order to write full-time, he worked in education, culminating in fourteen years as County English and Drama Adviser for Hertfordshire. While there, he ran annual residential creative writing courses for both children and teachers.
Since coming to Oxford twelve years ago, he was for five years Tutor for Short Fiction on the Undergraduate Diploma in Creative Writing. He mentors new writers and also works with The Oxford Editors.
He has his own publishing imprint, JOSLIN BOOKS, to reissue his previously published books and also new ones. He is extending this imprint to include JOSLIN SPECIALS, which will publish books by new writers for children and young adults for whom achieving commercial publication is proving a weary and dispiriting business. Dennis has a Partner membership with talented artist Kay Jamieson.