Helena Pielichaty was born in Stockholm, Sweden and moved to England when she was five. Her writing career started at the age of eleven when the Yorkshire Post published her poem, Litter, hailed as, as Helena puts it, ‘a literary triumph by my grandma.’

Helena's writing career was then put on hold for many years until, by some instinct, she joined a creative writing group. The group met in a damp scout and guide hut for only four sessions but she was hooked!

During the next ten years she wrote several short stories and one and a half books. The half book was sent to an agent and eventually became her first published novel Vicious Circle. She has since had many books published with Oxford University Press. She has already written a hugely successful trio of stories about the infamous Simone Wibberley.

Helena was keen to write another set of school-based books, but with a slightly unusual setting, which prompted the arrival of the After School Club series. Helena’s characteristic sense of fun abounds, making them a feel-good, laugh-out-loud collection for all children aged 7+, especially those who have their own experiences of time spent at an out of school club.

Her teen fiction tackles topics such as bullying, depression and poverty. Helena’s strength is her ability to write about difficult issues with both humour and sensitivity.

Helena says of her writing
‘Books have to be about something. Mine tend to be family and school-based, set in today’s society, but with plenty of humour. Humour is essential. If someone reads one of my books, enjoys it and finds it funny, it’s an achievement. If the story also helps that reader deal with their problems, it is a double achievement.’

Helena lives in Nottinghamshire.

Profile supplied by OUP. Last updated June 2003.