Deborah Nash won a short story competition at the age of 18 for which the prize was a three-week tour of Europe. She went on to study art in France as part of her degree, and later attended Nanjing College of Art, China. Her experiences abroad have inspired the content of her writing, and given her a life-long interest in travel.

Deborah leads a varied career as a freelance writer, editor and teacher, while also continuing to paint and play the harp. Her work includes plays for children’s theatre, and three picture books, two of which she also illustrated. A regular contributor to the education output of BBC radio, Deborah is often asked to adapt folk tales and myths for transmission. She writes travel features for newspapers and magazines, and she has been the curator of a successful touring exhibition of Chinese folk art, first shown at The Horniman Museum in London.

 Workshops   

Deborah runs workshops in schools, theatres, museums and galleries in London and further afield. She has just returned from teaching a series of workshops at Dulwich International School, Shanghai.

“I’ve been lucky enough to work with many talented painters, dancers, musicians, sound artists, puppeteers and dramaturges and I really enjoy mixing different disciplines and expanding the boundaries of what a writing workshop can be. My sessions usually include an element of sound and movement, as well as a visual stimulus.

Mime is a great tool for involving the whole class, whatever the level, and can be used to explore character and story in an engaging way. I’ve also recorded children narrating their own written work, and used harp accompaniment for their movement.”

A typical workshop consists of a warm-up exercise: verbal name-play and/or a story mime in which pupils get to guess the characters and the story, before doing the mime themselves. Then a visual is introduced – it might be a digital picture on the whiteboard, or a puppet – to stimulate discussion and some drama leading to a piece of writing. If the writing is group-based, each group makes a recording of their work (with sound effects) and their piece is shared with the rest of the class. Deborah generally works with primary schools (nursery to year 6) and first year of secondary.  

Published works

Little Star (Franklin Watts)Made in China (Frances Lincoln)

Riddle of the Nile (Frances Lincoln)

 Theatre plays

The Chinese Dragon and the Chocolate Soldiers (Snap Theatre Company)The Tinderbox (The Orange Tree theatre)Webs, Witches and the Spider Queen (The Little Angel Theatre)

Loki’s Children (LPC Platform, Theatre 503)

 Journalism

Features for: The Wire, The Arts Newspaper, The Oldie, The Artists and Illustrators Magazine, France Magazine

 BBC Radio

Stories and dramas, single voice and multi-voice narratives for: Something to Think About; Together

 Performances

The Little Angel Theatre, Huddersfield Music Festival, Tate Modern, The Whitechapel, Chisenhale Dance Space, Siobhan Davies Studios, the de la Warr Pavilion