Lesley Sims author page

Lesley Sims biography

Lesley Sims is a British children’s author and editor associated with Usborne Publishing.

She studied law at university and qualified as a barrister, before deciding to leave legal practice. Rather than practising law full-time, she entered publishing, editing a legal directory at a small firm.

In 1993, Lesley joined Usborne Publishing as a fiction editor in their Oxford office, and in 1995 she moved to the London office to work on puzzle fiction and humorous history titles. Her spoof guide Visitor’s Guide to Ancient Rome won the Times Educational Supplement Senior Information Book Award in 2000.

Over her career, she has written and edited hundreds of books spanning rhyming stories, adaptations, factual titles and early readers. She also works in Usborne’s recording studio, narrating and producing audio versions of books.

Her roles at Usborne have included managing editor for the Young & First Reading Series, Handbooks and Treasuries. Among her works are Bee Makes Tea, Crow in the Snow, Alice in Wonderland (retold) and many titles in phonics and first-reading series.

The Visitor’s Guide to Ancient Rome award in 2000 is one verifiable milestone.