James Bailey

Born in 1991, it was not until the age of twelve that James Bailey decided he wanted to be a writer…His childhood dream of being a tractor driver changed overnight when he came top in the Year 8 English exam. His teacher promised him the school’s English Prize, only to later tell him he wasn’t eligible. Putting this disappointment aside, he threw himself into journalism - starting a school student newspaper, and launching a sports website gaining exclusive interviews with the likes of Usain Bolt, Rafa Nadal and Julio Iglesias.His own sporting career was interrupted, however, when he was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, a cardiac arrhythmia. After two ablation operations, he has since supported the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young by carrying the Olympic Torch, running the London Marathon, making a speech at the House of Commons, and featuring alongside Pixie Lott in BBC1’s Lifeline appeal.