Lucy Catchpole

Writer – previously Lucy Sholl

Lucy’s first picture book You’re So Amazing! – co-written with husband James – is not a book about an amazing disabled child. Published in 2023, it won an Inclusive Books for Children award, and a Schneider honor in the US.

Mama Car is a celebration of disabled motherhood from the perspective of a small child – with bed picnics and a beloved wheelchair to beautify. It borrows heavily from her life with her daughters, and is her first book as sole author. (Faber 2024, Little Brown 2025.)

Lucy read English at Oxford. She’s written for The Guardian and the BBC, and contributed to We’ve Got This: Essays by Disabled Parents. She’s co-editor of Owning It: Our disabled childhoods in our own words – with stories by 22 disabled authors, out in 2025.

Alongside her husband, Lucy posts @thecatchpoles on Instagram, where she talks about family life, disability and their children’s literary agency. She’s a full-time wheelchair user, and has grown two whole people (small ones, admittedly).

Lucy Catchpole lives in Oxford, with James and their two daughters.

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Books

Mama Car
The cosy comfort of a mother’s wheelchair.

You’re SO Amazing!
A sequel to James’s picture book What Happened to You? – co-written by Lucy.

We’ve Got This: Essays by Disabled Parents
One chapter co-written by Lucy (with James).

Owning It: Our disabled childhoods…
Co-edited by Lucy, James, & Jen Campbell.

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Other things Lucy’s written

The Observer – I didn’t expect motherhood to legitimise me
Includes Lucy’s extract from We’ve Got This.

The Guardian – We can’t all be superhumans
On “there’s no such thing as can’t”.

BBC Ouch – Disabled girls are easy
I have no explanation for this title.

BBC Ouch – Out on a limb
A pun I didn’t write and had completely forgotten. A relic from when we first met.

BBC Ouch – Disabled single parent – who cares?

BBC Ouch – It’s less tragic when disabled people die

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Lucy is sometimes available to