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Malachy
was born in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland in 1954. His
parents had recently moved up from Dublin and named him,
their seventh child, after a local saint. They lived in
Whitehead a small town at the mouth of Belfast Lough all
his childhood - his father still lives there. He went to
secondary school (Saint Malachy’s College) in Belfast,
and then to Bolton, Lancashire where he studied for a degree
in Psychology. Malachy taught in Leeds for a year, followed
by six months packing Polo Mints. He then worked for seven
long years in advertising, firstly for Rowntree Mackintosh
in York and later for general foods in Banbury, before buying
a small holding in West Wales. To feed his wife, Liz, their
three young children, Naomi, Hannah and Liam (now teenagers),
and numerous goats, pigs and chickens, Malachy took a job
as a care assistant in a local Residential Special School.
For the next seven years he darned socks, patched jeans
and generally looked after the children there, before being
offered the post of Deputy Head at another Special School.
They moved to Machynlleth, a small town on the edge of the
Snowdonia National Park, and three years later began to
write for children.
He now
writes full time, apart from visiting schools or escaping
into the mountains, and his books are available in eleven
different languages. Malachy has been married to Liz for
22 years. They have three children, Naomi, who is doing
a theatre studies degree at Lancaster University, Hannah,
who is at art college and Liam who is still at school. Liz
works as an administrative director at the Centre for Alternative
Technology in Machynlleth.
Biography
provided by Bloomsbury
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