I’m a terrible insomniac, and do most of my writing late at night. I am entirely envious of people who write a regular amount of words every day. I have these enormous creative bursts where I write thousands of words a day, then periods when I can barely write a page.

Her drawings perfectly capture Rosalind’s quirky, kind, funny and sweet character, and the difficulties caused by her SM. I immediately fell in love with the cover and illustrations for the book, created by the artist Emma Trithart. The story is heart-breaking, but I wanted readers to laugh as much as they cry. It was important to me to make Rosalind a funny character, and include a lot of humour in the book. The book also explores the difficulties of living with SM: how it can be a barrier to making friends, asking for help, and showing people how smart, funny, kind and unique you are. Books really do have the power to change hearts and minds, so I hope Being Miss Nobody serves as a little reminder of the importance of being kind – in real life as well as online. I’m sure I’m not alone in worrying about young people staying safe online, and the devastating consequences of cyberbullying.

Rosalind has to speak up – but how can you do that when you can’t actually speak?īeing Miss Nobody is about the double-edged power of social media: how it can be a brilliant tool to express yourself, but how easy it can be to forget that our words have enormous power. However, it isn’t long before things spiral out of control, and people start getting hurt. Online Rosalind is able to say exactly what she wants.

So Rosalind starts an anonymous blog - Miss Nobody. At home, her little brother is very sick, so she feels unable to tell her parents about what’s happening to her. When Rosalind starts at a new secondary school, she’s known as the weird girl who can’t speak and becomes the perfect target for bullies – someone who can’t fight back. She has selective mutism, a severe anxiety disorder which makes it impossible for her to speak in front of anyone except her immediate family, and her slightly batty elderly next-door neighbour, Mrs Quinney (and her cats). The book is written from Rosalind’s perspective.

Being miss nobody by tamsin winter