David Almond is the acclaimed author of many novels for children, including Skellig, Kit's Wilderness, The Color of the Sun, and War Is Over, and he has collaborated with many artists on fiction for younger readers. His books sell all over the world, and he was the 2010 winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award. David Almond lives in England.
Beatrice Alemagna is the award-winning author and illustrator of several books, including Harold Snipperpot's Best Disaster Ever, Un grand jour de rien, Lotta combinaguai sa fare tutto by Astrid Lindgren, and Picasso&Lump by Nancy Lim. She is a six-time nominee for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award and has exhibited her art around the world. Beatrice Alemagna lives in Paris.
I grew up in a large Catholic family in Felling-on-Tyne: four sisters and one brother. I always knew I’d be a writer —I wrote stories and stitched them into little books. I had an uncle who was a printer, and in his printing shop I learned my love of black words on white pages. I loved our local library and dreamed of seeing books with my name on the cover on its shelves. I also dreamed of playing for Newcastle United (and I still wait for the call!). There was much joy in my childhood, but also much sadness: a baby sister died when I was seven; my dad died when we were all still young; my mum was always seriously ill with arthritis. But it was a childhood, like all childhoods, that provided everything a writer needs, and it illuminates and informs everything I write.
After school I read English and American literature. When I graduated I became a teacher — long holidays, short days, just perfect for a writer. After five years I gave up the job and lived in a commune in rural Norfolk where I wrote a long adult novel that was rejected by every U.K. publisher. I had two collections of short stories published by the tiny IRON Press. I started another adult novel, put it aside, and suddenly, out of the blue, I found myself writing Skellig. It was as if the story had been waiting for me, and once I began, it seemed to write itself. I hadn’t expected to write a children’s novel, but in some way it was the natural outcome of everything I’d done before, and was the stepping-stone to everything I’ve done since.
For years, I was hardly published and hardly anyone knew about me apart from a handful of keen fans. And I made just about no money at all from writing. That didn’t really matter to me. I’d keep on writing, no matter what. Then I wrote Skellig, and everything changed. I began to sell lots of books, to be translated into many languages, to travel, to win lots of prizes. I’ve written a number of novels after Skellig, including Kit’s Wilderness, The Fire-Eaters, Clay and A Song for Ella Grey. There have been stage versions of the novels, and films and an opera are on their way.
Three Things You Might Not Know About Me:
1. I love Japanese food — except for the thing I was given once that looked like an alien’s brain.
2. My first TV appearance was as an altar boy in a televised mass when I was eleven.
3. My grandfather was a bookie (he took bets on horse races). His advice? “Never bet.” He also told me, “Never read novels. They’re all just lies.”
