I was eager to do virtual visits with schools this side of the Atlantic as well but, despite my efforts to promote my Skype sessions through my web site and social media, the offer had only been taken up by a couple of UK schools. It occurred to me that one of the things that had helped virtual visits take off in the US were the online directories where schools could easily find available authors. So I decided to set up Virtual Authors UK as a directory of authors who were available to Skype with UK schools.

In 2014, when the site launched, most of the US authors offering virtual visits – and ALL of the authors listed on Kate Messner’s page – offered free 15-20 minute sessions. I decided that, to encourage UK schools to try virtual visits, I would initially follow Kate Messner’s example and only list authors who offered short sessions for free. I searched the internet for other UK authors who were offering free virtual visits. I found about twenty and contacted them to ask if they’d like to be listed in the directory, which all of them did. 

The site went online on 10 March 2014 and slowly began to pick up more authors. In 2017  I relaxed the free visits only requirement and the directory began to list authors who offered sessions for a fee. By the end of 2019, the directory listed about 50 different authors, but this number more than doubled in 2020 when the impossibility of making in-person school visits during the COVID pandemic encouraged many authors to take up virtual visits for the first time.

The site currently lists 125 different authors, illustrators and poets offering virtual visits using a range of software including Zoom, Google Meet, FaceTime, Microsoft Team in addition to Skype.