Val McDermid is the author of 22 bestselling novels, which have been translated into 30 languages, and have sold over 10 million copies. She has won many awards internationally, including the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year and the LA Times Book of the Year Award. She was inducted into the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame in 2009. My Granny Is a Pirate is Val’s first children’s book. Val divides her time between Manchester and Alnmouth.