"'Noughts and Crosses is about a black girl called Sephy and a white boy called Callum and their friendship in a world that's divided by the colour of your skin, and how their feelings for each other grow as they grow older and grow up' Amazon reader's review. As Malorie Blackman herself says: 'I wanted to turn society as we know it on its head, with new names for the major divisions, i.e. Noughts (the underclass) and Crosses (the majority, ruling society). I wanted to see this new world through the eyes of the main two characters, Callum (a nought) and Sephy (a Cross).'"

Malorie Blackman can lay claim to being Britain's leading black children's author. She won a 2003 Smarties Award for Cloud Busting and the 2004 Fantastic Fiction Award for Noughts and Crosses, which is the first in a series of books about racism set in a world where the traditional positions of black and white are reversed.Dominic Cooke's work as a director stretches from Arabian Nights for the Young Vic through the premiere of Plasticine at the Royal Court to Shakespeare for the RSC. He is Artistic Director of the Royal Court Theatre, London.