David Almond is the highly acclaimed author of many award-winning novels for children, such as The Boy Who Swam with Piranhas, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers; The Tale of Angelino Brown, illustrated by Alex R. Smith; Skellig; Clay; Kit’s Wilderness; War Is Over, illustrated by David Litchfield; The Color of the Sun; and Brand New Boy, illustrated by Marta Altés. His numerous awards include the Carnegie Medal and the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international prize for children’s authors. David Almond lives in England.
Lizzy Stewart has written and illustrated picture books for children, including There’s a Tiger in the Garden, which won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and World Illustration Award. She has also written and illustrated books for adults, including the graphic novel Alison. Lizzy Stewart lives and works in London.
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.”
