David Almond's debut children's novel 'Skellig' was published 1998. In the same year it won the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year and the Carnegie Medal. It was also shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Award.

His book 'Heaven Eyes', published by Hodder, was shortlisted for the 2000 Whitbread Book Award.

His other books include 'Kit's Wilderness', 'Counting Stars and Other Stories', 'Secret Heart', a play 'Wild Boy, Wild Girl' and most recently 'The Fire-eaters'.

David was born and grew up locally in a large Catholic family in a small steep town overlooking the River Tyne called Felling-on-Tyne. Of this town David says, "it was a place of ancient coal mines, dark terraced streets, strange shops, new estates and wild heather hills. Our lives were filled with mysterious and unexpected events, and the place and the people have given me many of my stories."

For most of his writing career David was a teacher, firstly in a primary school, then as an adult literacy tutor, then as a teacher for children with learning difficulties. He went part time as a teacher in 1990 to spend more time on his writing.

At one point David gave up his job, sold his house, and spent a year living and writing in a remote Norfolk commune, he started to write children's stories after he finished a series of stories about his own childhood.

David has also published lots of adult fiction including work in magazines and two collections of short stories 'Sleepless Nights' and 'A Kind of Heaven', some of these stories have also been broadcast on Radio 4.

He has also written a children's play, 'Mickey and the Emperor', which was produced at Washington Arts Centre in 1984. David is four times Northern Short Story Competition winner and has won the Edinburgh Review Short Story Competition and the Hawthornden Fellowship. Between 1987-93 David edited the fiction magazine 'Panurge'.

David lives in a remote part of Northumberland near to the Roman wall with his family and writes full time.

Last updated September 2003