Jamila’s first book, The Magic Orange Tree, was published in 1979 and she has since been writing steadily, producing critically acclaimed novels and collections of short stories.
She has been shortlisted for many of the major children’s book awards, including the Smarties Award and the Guardian Award. Coram Boy won the Children’s Whitbread Award and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, before being adapted for the stage. The Wheel of Surya, part one of the Surya trilogy, was runner up for the Guardian Children's Fiction Award, and the other two titles were also shortlisted.