“David Almond’s books are strange, unsettling wild things – unfettered by the normal constraints of children’s literature. They are, like all great literature, beyond classification.”
The Guardian
“He is that rare thing - a writer of lucid, mature elegance, who can still see the world through adolescent eyes.”
The Daily Telegraph
David Almond’s writer’s journey started in a council house in Felling-on-Tyne, in a spooky Catholic school on the banks of the river. He has now won a string of major international awards. His books and plays are published and performed all around the globe. Celebrated as one of the world’s leading authors for young people, his work is loved by people of all ages. But when he began, he was told that the north was culturally insignificant, that its language was coarse, that he was writing from the fringes of civilisation. But the north - its strangeness and beauty, its landscape and history, its people and language - are at the heart of all he does. The north - that marginalised, patronised, derided place - becomes the middle of the world. David will talk about his books, his life, his writing process in an event for all ages.
David Almond OBE FRSL is the author of Skellig, The Falling Boy, Puppet, The Tightrope Walkers, A Song for Ella Grey and many more novels, stories, picture books, radio programmes and plays. His work is published and performed all around the world. He has been a guest on both Desert Island Discs and Private Passions. His major awards include The Carnegie Medal, The Nonino International Prize, The Michael L Printz Award and The Hans Christian Andersen Award. He is Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. In 2021 he was awarded an OBE for services to literature. He lives on the beautiful North East Coast.
