Alan Durant was born in Surrey in the house where his parents still live. He was educated at Trinity School, Croydon, the model for the school in his first published book, Hamlet, Bananas and All That Jazz, which was set in the Camden area of London, where he lived for several years.

Alan studied English at Keble College, Oxford and then lived in Paris for a couple of years where he worked at a school for spontaneous expression "run by one of the shortest, fattest, most volatile couples the world has seen - it was a significant formative experience."

For the last fifteen years Alan has lived in and around London, working first as a writer and publicist for the Spastics Society (now Scope) and then in publishing for Walker Books as a copywriter.

He has written picture books and young fiction, as well as a number of teenage novels and contributed to several anthologies. He frequently visits both primary and secondary schools to perform, give talks and run workshops.

He has a passion for football in general and Manchester United in particular and his most treasured possession is a Manchester United Football Book signed by his hero, George best, his current favourite footballer is Paul Scholes. He also writes poetry and has twice won the Kingston Borough/Waterstone's Poetry Competition. Alan lives with his wife, Jinny, and three children, Amy, Kit and Josie ("my writing guinea-pigs"), in Surrey - not far enough from where he grew up.

Biography

I had two passions when I was at primary school - football and books. I can still recall vividly the thrill I got from C. S. Lewis's Narnia books, Enid Blyton's Famous Five series (the genesis of my interest in thrillers), Michael Hardcastle's football stories and anything by Meriol Trevor, especially The King of the Castle, my absolute favourite book. My favourite possession, though, is a Manchester United Football Year Book from 1969 signed "To Alan from George Best" (George Best was my hero: I saw him play many times, I had shares in his clothing company, I even named my goldfish after him…). All of these books were a major inspiration to me and undoubtedly played an important part in my development as a writer. I don't believe you can be a writer without being a reader, we write books because we enjoy reading them.

My first books were about teenage life and came from my own experiences and concerns - I was fourteen when I discovered the immense and liberating power of writing and it was my main stay during my largely unhappy adolescent years. Now I write to entertain my three children (Amy, Kit and Josie) and their friends. I write lots of different styles of books and for a wide age-range - from the teenage thriller Ring of Truth (published by Barrington Stoke in August) to picture books such as Mouse Party, Big Fish, Little Fish and Big Bad Bunny. I've written funny-spooky books such as the Creepe Hall trilogy (which evolved from my childhood-love of The Munsters), science-fiction in Starquest: Voyage to the Greylon Galaxy (the only story to feature all three of my children - well, there names at least), school with Spider McDrew, real life in Jake's Magic and, of course, football with the Leggs United and my current series Bad Boyz, about a team of delinquent children, coming to a pitch near you very soon!

Biography supplied by Alan Durant. Last Updated May 2003

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Alan Durant Interview
Process of Writing by Alan Durant
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