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I grew up in Felling on Tyne, close to the city of Newcastle and not far from beautiful North Sea beaches and Northumberland’s wide open spaces. I had four sisters and a brother. My dad worked in the office of an engineering firm. My mam was a shorthand typist. We lived on a council estate until I was 13.
I think I was a happy boy, but there was also a good deal of sadness – one of my little sisters died when I was seven and my dad died when I was fifteen. We were Catholics, and I was an altar boy, so I spent a lot of time in church. I roamed the streets and fields, played football with my mates, camped in the hills, headed off to beautiful Northumbrian beaches. I liked primary school but disliked grammar school. I loved our little local library. I knew I wanted to be a writer and I dreamed that I’d see my books on its shelves one day.
Over the years, I’ve been a labourer on building sites, a tank cleaner in a shipyard, a brush salesman, a postman, a hotel porter. I went to UEA and studied English and American Literature. I became a primary school teacher, which I loved. I wrote short stories at the weekends and during the holidays, and started to get my work published in little magazines. As I approached thirty, I gave it all up, resigned from my job, sold my house and lived in a Norfolk commune for a year and kept on writing, writing, writing.
My first novel took me five years to write, and was rejected by every UK publisher. I shrugged, spat and kept on writing. What else would I do? I wrote stories, poems, plays. I travelled. I fell in love with many books, and with much music. I worked in Adult Literacy and as a part-time special needs teacher. I edited a literary magazine, Panurge, for a few years. My first two story collections were published in tiny editions by the heroic Iron Press, run by Peter Mortimer. Then, when I was in my forties, I was ambushed by a story that turned out to be called Skellig, and everything changed.
Skellig was published by Hodder Children’s Books in 1998, and has since been translated into 40 languages. It has sold over a million copies in the English language. It has become a stage play, a radio play, a movie and an opera. Skellig opened up a whole new creative world for me and I’ve written many more novels, stories, plays, opera librettos and songs. The beautiful 25th anniversary edition, with wonderful art by Tom de Freston, has just been published.
I’ve won many major literary awards. In 2010, I received The Hans Christian Andersen Award, the world’s most prestigious award for children’s authors. In 2022 I was awarded the Nonino International Prize, in Udine, Italy. Past winners include Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Chinua Achebe, Ismail Kadare and John Banville. The award called me ‘a rare, doubly gifted writer’, able not only to craft wonderful stories, but also be understood and appreciated by children. This is the first time the prize has been presented to a writer for young people, and the first time to a writer from the UK. In the same year, I won the James Krüss Prize for International Children’s and Youth Literature, which ‘honours and promotes the work of a children’s book author whose texts are characterized by linguistic brilliance, originality, imaginative narrative and cosmopolitanism.’
Also in 2022, I was formally presented with my OBE for services to literature. It was presented by the Lord Lieutenant of Tyne and Wear. The ceremony took place at Gateshead Civic Centre, just over the hill from where I grew up.
I was Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University from 2012 until 2020. I have honorary Doctorates from the Universities of East Anglia, Newcastle, Sunderland and Leicester. I’m a Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature. I work with artists, musicians, actors, teachers, directors, dancers. My stage works have been directed by directors, including Sir Trevor Nunn, Josie Rourke, Max Roberts. I wrote the libretto for the opera of Skellig, composed by Tod Machover and directed by Braham Murray. I’ve collaborated with musicians including Kathryn Tickell, The Unthanks and The Pet Shop Boys. Illustrators I’ve worked with include Dave McKean, Laura Carlin, Beatrice Alemagna, Levi Pinfold, Oliver Jeffers, David Litchfield, Tom de Freston. I write and present radio programmes for BBC Radio 3 and 4.
I live on the beautiful North East coast. I’m married to the author Julia Green. I have one amazing daughter, Freya. I’m fascinated by the nature of creativity, by the writing process, by education. I visit schools and universities. I speak at festivals and conferences around the world. I work with, and write for, children and adults. I believe that children are natural artists, that each one of us has an extraordinary imagination. I’m astounded by this amazing world, by the universe in which we live. I love beaches, light, music, puppets, Italy, skylarks, garlic, pasta, theatre, sardines, chilli, cinema, books. Every story that we write or read or paint or act or sing or dance is an act of optimism, a move against the destructive forces that want to stifle us. I keep on writing.
You can find out about my writing process on the ‘On Writing’ page.
