This is quite dry, this bit, but has the
main facts. For a less dry, but less useful, list
of stuff about me click here.
I
am a writer. The stuff I've written includes novels,
screenplays, children's novels and journalism.
My
first novel, The Last Family in England (2004)
was a UK bestseller. It was an honour when one of
my favourite writers, Jeanette Winterson, called it
'among the great animal books.' It was a Daily Mail
Book Club selection, and the film rights have been
sold to Brad Pitt's production company. The very talented
New Zealand film-maker Taika Waititi has written a
brilliant screenplay and plans to direct the film.
Since
that book I've written The Dead Fathers Club (2006)
and The Possession of Mr Cave (2008), which
have been translated into ten languages. The last
one is still the darkest thing I've ever written,
by quite a long way. Again, an excellent screenplay
for that has been written by Brock Norman Brock.
My
latest novel, The Radleys, won an ALA Alex
Award in America, has been shortlisted for the Portico
prize and nominated for the Carnegie Medal, and has
been translated into 26 languages. It is a TV Book
Club Summer Read and will appear on Channel Four/More
4 the week beginning August 7th 2011. I have written
the screenplay with the help of the (now chopped)
UK Film Council, which is being produced into a film
by Alfonso Cuaron and BBC Films. It was written as
an adult novel, but in addition to the Canongate edition
there is a young adult edition available in the UK
published by Walker Books.
However,
I have written some children's books. My first, Shadow
Forest, won the Nestle/Smarties Prize, the Blue
Peter Book of the Year Award (2009) and eight regional
awards. Both Shadow Forest and it's sequel
The Runaway Troll are being re-packaged and
re-published for an early 2012 release in the UK.
This will coincide with the launch of my new kids
book, To Be a Cat.
I
was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire in 1975. Since then
I have lived in Nottinghamshire, Ibiza and London.
I studied English and History at Hull University and
then did an MA at Leeds. I live in York with the writer
Andrea
Semple and our children Lucas and Pearl.
And
in 2009, I won the Yorkshire Young Achievers 'Achievement
in the Arts' Award. |