Sally Pomme Clayton is a writer of stories, performances, lyrics, texts, plays, articles and blogs. Her writing grows out of performance, exploring written forms that keep oral qualities alive. She loves to combine folklore with history, myth with biography, travel stories with cultural history, anecdotes with fairytales.
She has published 14 children’s books, her most recent is The King with Dirty Feet’ (Otter-Barry Books 2018) which came out in a lovely new paperback edition in 2021. ‘The Phoenix of Persia’ (Tiny Owl Books 2019). Her books have been translated into Greek, Korean, Romanian, Turkish, Danish, Japanese, Dutch. Find out more about her publications.
In 2019 she wrote the play ‘The Little Prince’ for Omnibus Theatre. And is currently writing ‘The Mighty Goddess’ a collection of myths for adults about goddesses from around the world for The History Press, due for publication in 2022.
‘With acceptance at its heart, Sally Pomme Clayton’s telling really does feel like a drama unfolding before you, accompanied by Amin Hassanzadeh Sharif’s wonderful, richly textured, jewel-hued scenes. That’s not all though: there’s a QR code at the beginning of the book you can use to listen to a beautiful musical accompaniment on Iranian instruments to Sally’s narration. Rich in classroom potential, this book is FABULOUS!’ The Phoenix of Persia, Reading Hub, Jill Bennet
Sally Pomme has been commissioned to write stories, songs, plays, texts, articles for: Totally Thames; The Tower of London; Hillingdon Library; The Royal Shakespeare Company; The London Philharmonic Orchestra; Welsh National Opera; Unicorn Theatre; The Swedenborg Society; Chichester Festival Theatre; Wellcome collection; The British Museum; WOMAD. She has written plays and documentaries for radio, among them: As I crossed a Bridge of Dreams (Radio 4 1998); The Young Man’s Tale (Radio 3 2000 ); Tales from the statue (Radio 4 2003), and The Whole Brain (Radio 3 2006). She was winner of the BBC ‘Write Out Loud’ award for writing for radio (1997).
“The story burns with fury and pride as well as fierce love and loyalty, at its heart a deeply moving vision of the unity of earth and heaven, an alliance of gods and people, animals, plants and stones. Sally Pomme Clayton conveys this in an oral storyteller’s unpretentious prose, alongside Sophie Herxheimer’s fire-bright illustrations.” ‘Rama and Sita – Path of flames’, Books for Keeps.
“This is a superb collection of powerfully retold stories featuring bold and courageous heroines from around the world, which deserves a place on any bookshelf… perfect read-aloud stories and would undoubtedly enrich children’s knowledge and understanding of different cultures, whilst conveying important messages about courage, bravery and love.” ‘Amazons, women warriors of the world’ , Writeaway