David Almond

In March 2010 David Almond won The Hans Christian Andersen Award which is presented every other year to a living author and illustrator whose complete works have made a lasting contribution to children's literature.

Julia Eccleshare on David Almond:

One of the best-loved and finest writers of today, David Almond made an immediate impact with Skellig, his first book. The moving story of a boy’s discovery of a strange creature in the shed which can be interpreted in many ways introduced some to the recurrent themes of David Almond’s writing. Infused with a touch of magic or the supernatural or ‘belief’, David Almond writes sensitively about the inner complexities of growing up. Much influenced by the landscape of Tyneside where he was brought up and still lives, David Almond’s books have a strong sense of place especially in titles such as Heaven’s Eyes, The Fire-Eater and Kit’s Wilderness. Although often clearly set in some particular time, there is a timeless quality to David Almond’s stories which give them enduring appeal.

A Note from the Author:

"I grew up in a big extended Catholic family [in the north of England]. I listened to the stories and songs at family parties. I listened to the gossip that filled Dragone's coffee shop. I ran with my friends through the open spaces and the narrow lanes. We scared each other with ghost stories told in fragile tents on dark nights. We promised never-ending friendship and whispered of the amazing journeys we'd take together. I sat with my grandfather in his allotment, held tiny Easter chicks in my hands while he smoked his pipe and the factory sirens wailed and larks yelled high above. I trembled at the images presented to us in church, at the awful threats and glorious promises made by black-clad priests with Irish voices. I scribbled stories and stitched them into little books. I disliked school and loved the library, a little square building in which I dreamed that books with my name on them would stand one day on the shelves. Skellig, my first children's novel, came out of the blue, as if it had been waiting a long time to be told. It seemed to write itself. It took six months, was rapidly taken by Hodder Children's Books and has changed my life. By the time Skellig came out, I'd written my next children's novel, Kit's Wilderness. These books are suffused with the landscape and spirit of my own childhood. By looking back into the past, by re-imagining it and blending it with what I see around me now, I found a way to move forward and to become something that I am intensely happy to be: a writer for children."

The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean David Almond Award-winning David Almond breaks new boundaries in his storytelling of this remarkable tale. Billy Dean is an innocent child surrounded by decay and threatened with an undefined violence. In his unique voice, he tells his own story of survival and... Format: Hardback - Released: 01/09/2011 Lovereading Price: £9.74 - Saving £3.25 (25%)

The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean David Almond David Almond's extraordinary first novel for adults is the story of a child, born of sin, who emerges into a post-industrial, almost apocalyptic world where the force of his innocence is tested to the extreme. Format: Hardback - Released: 01/09/2011 Lovereading Price: £9.74 - Saving £3.25 (25%)

Jackdaw Summer David Almond In his exceptional, delicate writing, prize-winning author David Almond weaves together many strands which together give an intimate insight into the thinking of two boys growing up in his familiar Northumberland countryside. Against a background of fighter planes swooping overhead, the boys follow the... Format: Paperback - Released: 07/05/2009 Lovereading Price: £4.49 - Saving £1.50 (25%)