Lara Williamson Books in Order

If you want the best introduction: A Boy Called Hope → The Boy Who Sailed the Ocean in an Armchair
If you like funny, tender family stories: A Boy Called Hope → Just Call Me Spaghetti-Hoop Boy
If you want a younger, illustrated read: Midge & Mo
If you want to read in publication order: A Boy Called Hope → The Boy Who Sailed the Ocean in an Armchair → Just Call Me Spaghetti-Hoop Boy → Midge & Mo

Lara Williamson was born and studied in Northern Ireland before moving to London. As a child, she loved picture books, glitter and daydreaming, and she has described herself as the kind of kid who half expected a snowy kingdom to be waiting at the back of a wardrobe. That mix of imagination and big feeling still sits at the centre of her books.

She wanted to write early.

When she was around ten, she decided she was going to be published and started writing and illustrating her own stories. The first one stalled after a few chapters, but the plan itself never really disappeared. Long before she had an agent or a book deal, she already knew that stories were where she felt most at home.

Before novels, Williamson studied fashion design and built a career in magazines. She moved to London, wrote features, worked on beauty pages, styled photo shoots, and spent six years as beauty editor at J-17, with other magazine work that included ELLE and New Woman. She has said that writing for that age group was so exciting she never wanted to stop. That background matters because it kept her close to young readers and the rhythms of everyday life, which is part of why her fiction feels chatty, observant and grounded.

Her debut novel, A Boy Called Hope, was published in 2014 and quickly showed readers what she does well. The book follows eleven-year-old Dan Hope, whose biggest wish is to get his dad back, and it balances family hurt with jokes, odd observations and real tenderness. Dan's voice is funny and hopeful even when life is going badly, which is a big part of the book's pull. It was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize and later won the Sheffield Children's Book Award and the Salford Children's Book Award.

Then came The Boy Who Sailed the Ocean in an Armchair.

Published in 2015, it tells the story of Becket Rumsey, who is taken away in the night by his father and left trying to understand what has happened to the life he knew. With his brother Billy and a snail called Brian beside him, Becket moves through confusion, loss and discovery. The book was picked as a Waterstones Book of the Month, shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Award, and later adapted into a musical. It is a good example of Williamson's usual balancing act, making room for sadness without letting the story lose its curiosity or warmth.

She kept building on that approach in Just Call Me Spaghetti-Hoop Boy, about an adopted boy named Adam Butters who goes looking for his birth mother after fears and questions start piling up at home. She took a similar emotional honesty into Midge & Mo, a shorter illustrated story for younger readers about a boy struggling with a new school and a girl who refuses to stop trying to befriend him. Different setup, same clear-eyed kindness. Readers often come to her books for the humour, but stay for the way she writes about worry, family change, friendship, belonging and the small acts of courage children manage every day.

Hope runs through the lot of them. Williamson has said she is drawn to stories with an emotional heart, and that feels exactly right. No family in her books is ordinary, and that is really the point. Her characters are often dealing with separation, loss, anxiety or the fear of not quite fitting, but they are never treated as helpless. They get to be stubborn, imaginative, messy and brave.

Williamson lives in London with her family. Her author notes still sound like the same person who loved glitter and daydreaming as a child, and who now also talks about tap-dancing, chips and writing stories. If you like middle-grade fiction that can make you laugh, catch you off guard, and still leave a little light on at the end, her books are a very good place to start.