David Almond

David John Almond was born May 15, 1951 and is a British author who has written many novels for children and young adults from 1998, each one receiving critical acclaim.

He is one of thirty children's writers, and one of three from the UK, to win the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award.

Early life and education

Almond was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1951 and was raised in neighbouring Felling. His father was an office manager in an engineering factory and his mother was a shorthand typist. Almond was raised Catholic at St Joseph's Catholic Academy and had four sisters and one brother. As a child, he dreamed of becoming a writer and "wrote stories and stitched them into little books". (He had been one of five finalists in 2008.) Le Prix Sorcieres (France); the Katholischer Kinder-und Jugendbuchpreis (Germany); and a Silver Pencil and three Silver Kisses (Netherlands).

The Skellig prequel, My Name is Mina (Hodder, 2010), was a finalist for three major annual awards: the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, the Carnegie Medal, and the (German) Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis. Almond was awarded the International Nonino Prize for 2022.

Almond was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2011. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to literature.

Works

Sleepless Nights (Cullercoats, Tyne and Wear: Iron Press, 1985), collection A Kind of Heaven (Iron Press, 1997), collection Skellig (Hodder Children's Books, 1998) Kit's Wilderness (Hodder, 1999) Counting Stars (Hodder, 2000), collection Heaven Eyes (Hodder, 2000) Secret Heart (Hodder, 2001) Where Your Wings Were (Hodder, March 2002), collection – World Book Day selection from Counting Stars, The Fire Eaters (Hodder, 2003) Clay (Hodder, 2005) My Dad's a Birdman, illus. Polly Dunbar (Walker Books, 2007) Jackdaw Summer (Hodder, 2008); US title, Raven Summer The Boy Who Climbed Into the Moon, illus. Dunbar (Walker, 2010) My Name is Mina (Hodder, 2010) – prequel to Skellig The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean (Penguin, 2011) The Boy Who Swam With Piranhas, illus. Oliver Jeffers (Walker, 2012) Mouse Bird Snake Wolf, illus. Dave McKean (Walker, 2013) A Song for Ella Grey (Hodder, 2014) The Tightrope Walkers (Penguin, 2014) The Tale of Angelino Brown (Walker Books, 2017) The Colour of the Sun (Hodder, 2018) War Is Over, illus. David Litchfield (Hodder, 2018) Brand New Boy, (Walker Books, 2020) Annie Lumsden, the Girl from the Sea, illus. Beatrice Alemagna (Candlewick Press, 2021)

Picture books and graphic novels Kate, the Cat and the Moon, illus. Stephen Lambert (2004) The Savage, illus. McKean (2008) Slog's Dad, illus. McKean (2009) The Dam, illus. Levi Pinfold (2018) The Woman Who Turned Children Into Birds, illus. Laura Carlin (Walker Books, 2022)

Plays

Wild Girl, Wild Boy (2002) My Dad's a Birdman Noah & the Fludd Skellig (2002), adaptation of his novel Heaven Eyes, adaptation of his novel

Personal life Almond now lives in Newcastle upon Tyne. He has a child, Freya.