About Heather

Heather Peace worked in touring theatre for ten years, commissioning and directing new plays. Residencies included The Women's Theatre Group (1981-4) and Theatre Venture (1984-9).

She joined the BBC Drama Script Unit in 1989, later script editing productions in Drama Serials under Michael Wearing, and Comedy under Robin Nash, where she developed Lisselle Kayla's ground-breaking sitcom Us Girls about three generations of black women. In 1991 she left the BBC to become Head of Comedy Development at Witzend Productions, returning in 1994 to edit one week in four of EastEnders for a year. From '94-'96 she was a senior script editor in Drama Serials, leaving to become a freelance editor and writer.

She wrote for the second series of Crossroads and has written a number of short stories; she trained to teach English in 2003, but prefers to work outside the classroom.

In September 2008 she was appointed Associate Lecturer at the Open University on the new Advanced Creative Writing course.

Her first novel All to Play For is expected to be published in late 2011.

Qualifications:

• BA Honours in English at Nottingham University (1975-8)
• Diploma in Theatre Directing, the Drama Studio, London (1978-9)
• Postgraduate Certificate in Education at the Institute of Education , London University (2003-4) (Qualified to teach English in secondary schools)

Selected TV productions & Publications:

Script Editing

Us Girls by Lisselle Kayla, (sitcom, 6 x 30mins, 1992 BBC1)

The Ghostbusters of East Finchley by Tony Grounds (comedy drama, 6 x 30mins, 1995 BBC2)

The Bite by Terry Johnson, (thriller, 2 x 90mins, broadcast 1996 BBC1)

Real Women by Susan Oudot, (comedy drama, 3 x 50mins, 1997 BBC1)

Babes in the Wood by Geoff Deane (sitcom, 6 x 30mins, 1997 ITV)

Mr Nice by Michael Eaton from Howard Marks' autobiography (drama, 4 x 60mins. Never filmed)

Writing

Crossroads episode 315 (30min soap, 2002 ITV)

Cissy and the Beast (crossover fairytale shortlisted by the London Writers competition 2002)

Grace's Book (short story for teenagers, published 2003 by the English and Media Centre)

Campanula (crossover fairytale shortlisted by the Real Writers competition 2004)

Fashion Police (adult/teen fiction longlisted by the Fish Short Story prize 2007 and highly commended in the New Writer and Poetry Prizes 2006). Published in The New Writer magazine Nov/Dec 2007 www.thenewwriter.com

Review of Grace's Book:

"In a more humourous vein but within (just) the bounds of naturalism, 'Grace's Book' gives us someone who deserves a bigger space in fiction for children, the freaky girl. We know they exist, they win things like 'Fame Academy', so more please." Michael Rosen, January 2004.

Recent workshops and seminars taught by Heather:

Dreams, Metaphor and Creative Writing: a seminar for Associate Lecturers in Arts and Humanities at the Open University in London, 2009.

Dreams and Creating Metaphors: a workshop at the Third International Conference of the Nordic and European Network for the Study of Dreams in Gothenburg, Sweden, 2009.

Creativity and Writing: a workshop for the London Association of Teachers of English, 2009.