Mal Peet

Malcolm Charles Peet (5 October 1947 – 2 March 2015) was an English writer and illustrator best known for young adult fiction. He has won several honours including the Brandford Boase, the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Prize, British children's literature awards that recognise "year's best" books. Three of his novels feature football and the fictional South American sports journalist Paul Faustino. The Murdstone Trilogy and "Mr Godley's Phantom" were his first works aimed at adult readers.

Biography Peet grew up on a council estate in North Walsham, Norfolk, the eldest of three siblings, in a family that he describes as "emotionally impaired". He attended the Paston School and spent one year at the University of Warwick studying English and American literature, but graduated later, eventually earning an M.A. degree there. He worked at a variety of jobs, including writer for educational publishers, before deciding to start a novel at age 52. For his second novel, Tamar (2005), he won the annual Carnegie Medal from the British librarians, recognising the year's best children's book published in the U.K.

Susan Tranter wrote that "Mal Peet's work is notable for its refusal to submit to categories – the constraints which label what a book should be about, and who it should appeal to. His books to date prove that successful literature for young readers doesn't have to be didactic, or have overtly youthful themes, or even centre on young characters. It is the quality of the writing which is, ultimately, the most important thing." Peet says he is skeptical of books written specifically for teenagers, saying they are prone to condescension. A final novel of Peet's, titled Beck, was finished and published posthumously by his longtime friend Meg Rosoff.

Selected works Cloud Tea Monkeys (Ragged Bears, 1999), written by Elspeth Graham and Mal Peet, illustrated by Alan Marks — "based on a Chinese folktale"