produced by Grasshopper. In 2009 they were joined by Imelda Staunton as SHREW for the recording of a Christmas Special. MOUSE & MOLE has also been on tour as a stage production with TIEBREAK. Also produced as a puppet show is SHOE BABY (Walker Books) which is illustrated by her daughter Polly, with music by Tom Gray of Gomez and produced by Longnosepuppets.

In June 2008, MOONBIRD (RANDOM HOUSE), a story about a deaf prince illustrated by Jane Ray, was staged by
I-Theatre in Singapore. Joyce was invited to see it and also to give a keynote speech at the Asian Children's Writers and Illustrators Conference, as well as running masterclasses and workshops.

Forthcoming publications include I WANT A MINI TOGER (Macmillan) illustrated by Lara Jones and PUSS JEKYLL, CAT HYDE (Penguin) illustrated by Jill Barton.

Joyce did 'A' level art, but even though she chose literature over Art School, she spent some years running an art department in an adult education centre in London.

From 1972 to 1995 she was married to James Dunbar, who is an artist, and they collaborated on several books together. They have two children, Polly Dunbar, writer, illlustrator and co-founder of Longnose Puppets, and Ben Dunbar-Brunton, the photographer.

Joyce regularly visits schools as an author and for eight years taught creative writing on the Greek island of Skyros and elsewhere. In 1998 she cycled across Cuba for the National Deaf children's Society and in 1999 journeyed to the Himalayas with a guru for the founding of a new ashram.

From 2006 to 2009 she was Writing Fellow of the Royal literary Fund at the University of East Anglia, as well as being a visiting writing tutor on a new M.A. course in Creative Entrpreneurship (M.A.C.E) at UEA. She is also working on a book for adults.

More recently, Joyce wrote LOVE A PICTURE BOOK, a manifesto about the value of pcture books, published and distributed by BOOKTRUST in March 2010.

She loves gardens, animals, visual arts, theatre, cinema,reading, walking, cycling, gazing out of the window and Leonard Cohen. In another life she would like to be a dancer or an explorer/naturalist.

She lives in the Centre of Norwich with her cat, Minnie ha-Ha.

IN THE PICTURE

From 2005 to 2008 Joyce was on the steering committee of SCOPE'S IN THE PICTURE campaign, with the aim of including disabled children in picture books. Joyce is herself is a hearing impaired lip-reader. Together with Jane Ray, she produced a book about a deaf child called MOONBIRD, which has been turned into a theatre production in Singapore and France, and into a video in Thailand. Joyce and Jane are available to talk about the work of IN THE PICTURE.

AUTHOR VISITS

Joyce is happy to visit your school or library group. SHe also gives talks to adults about writing for children and runs bespoke writing workshops.

She has a changing programme and is willing to adapt to this particular interests and requirements.

Her fees are in line with the Society of Authors guidelines, plus travel and expenses.

Click here to contact Joyce.