David Almond

David Almond FRSL (born 15 May 1951) is a British author who has written several novels for children and young adults from 1998, each one receiving critical acclaim. He is one of thirty children's writers, and one of three from the U.K., to win the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award, "the world's most prestigious prize in children's literature". For the 70th anniversary of the British Carnegie Medal in 2007, his debut novel Skellig (1998) was named one of the top ten Medal-winning works, selected by a panel to compose the ballot for a public election of the all-time favourite. It ranked third in the public vote from that shortlist. 2Early life and education Almond was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1951 and raised in neighbouring Felling. His father was an office manager in an engineering factory and his mother a shorthand typist. He was raised Catholic at St Joseph's Catholic Academy and had four sisters and one brother. As a child, he dreamed of becoming a writer and "wrote stories and stitched them into little books." He describes his childhood as one with "much joy" but also "much sadness," losing his younger sister and father at a young age. He was educated at the University of East Anglia and Newcastle Polytechnic. After graduating, Almond worked as a teacher for five years; he then moved to an artists' commune in Norfolk and concentrated on his writin