Diana has published four books of poems plus two pamphlets. Many of her short stories have been published in journals and/or read on BBC Radio 4. She's written more than 40 books for children from picture books to young adult novels. She's worked as a journalist and a tutor in creative writing and as writer-in-residence at Dumfries & Galloway Royal Infirmary. From 2008-2010 she was a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Edinburgh University. Currently she is co-editor of New Writing Scotland.
Two of Diana's picture books have been adapted by Blunderbus Theatre Company and she has written the libretto for a choral version of the Pied Piper of Hamlyn.
Diana's most recent collection of poems is The Seed-Box Lantern: New & Selected Poems. Her awards include a Whitbread Award for a junior novel, Harvey Angell, a SAC Award for a sequel, Harvey Angell Beats Time. In 2012 she was shortlisted for a Costa Award and a Scottish Children's Book Award for The Seeing. Her poetry won a Housman Society Poetry Competition. With Hamish Whyte she was awarded a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship.
Currently Diana is working on a new junior novel and a picture book. She is also co-editing New Writing Scotland and will be tutoring the Pushkin Prize winners at Moniack Mhor in the Spring.
For adults: poetry readings, workshops, talks.
As editor with Hamish Whyte - Poems United: A Commonwealth Anthology.
Occasional book review for The Spectator.
People think the Coggins are strange, in their sea-battered house high up on the cliffs.
It's Christmas Eve, and the house in Exeter Street is full to bursting! There's a guest in every nook and cranny from top to bottom - and even a baby sleeping in the kitchen sink!
1953. When wild, dangerous, break-all-the-rules Natalie arrives in the quiet town of Norton, thirteen-year-old Lizzie is drawn irresistibly to the new girl from the wrong side of the tracks.
This is a fairy tale based on the story of The Six Swans. Six brothers were turned to swans by their wicked step-mother.
Poems about late love, family and the working life.
It is a hot sunny day and Big Mouse is digging in the garden. He asks Little Mouse to help, but Little Mouse is busy dreaming. The dream involves daisies, clover and two snowy white feathers.
It's the night before Christmas and Big Mouse and Little Mouse are putting up decorations. Little Mouse scampers out to search for holly but finds big white flakes falling from the sky.
Opening with a group of poems set in Crete, this book also features poems about Christmas, pianos, family, people (real and imaginary), pigeons and skylarks.