Mark Haddon

Mark Haddon
Born (1962-10-28) 28 October 1962
Northampton, England, United Kingdom
Occupation Writer, illustrator
Nationality British
Education MA, English Literature
Alma mater Merton College, Oxford
Uppingham School
Period 1987–present (as writer)
Genre Novels, children's literature, poetry, screenplays, radio drama
Notable awards Whitbread Book of the Year
2003
Guardian Prize
2003
Spouse Sos Eltis
Website
markhaddon.com

Mark Haddon (born 28 October 1962) is an English novelist, best known for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003). He won the Whitbread Award, the Dolly Gray Children's Literature Award, Guardian Prize, and a Commonwealth Writers Prize for his work.

Life and work

Haddon was born on 28 October 1962 to Janella Murphy in Northampton, England. He was educated at Uppingham School and Merton College, Oxford, where he studied English. In 1984, he completed an MSc in English Literature at the University of Edinburgh.

In 1987, Haddon wrote his first children’s book, Gilbert’s Gobstopper. This was followed by many other children’s books, which were often self-illustrated.

Haddon is also known for his series of Agent Z books, one of which, Agent Z and the Penguin from Mars, was made into a 1996 Children's BBC sitcom. He also wrote the screenplay for the BBC television adaptation of Raymond Briggs's story Fungus the Bogeyman, screened on BBC1 in 2004. In 2007 he wrote the BBC television drama Coming Down the Mountain.

In 2003, Haddon won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award—in the Novels rather than Children's Books category—for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. He also won the Commonwealth Writers Prize in the Best First Book category, as The Curious Incident was considered his first written for adults;[1] yet he also won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a once-in-a-lifetime award judged by a panel of children's writers.[2] It was also long listed for the Man Booker Prize.

The Curious Incident is written from the perspective of a 15-year-old boy with Asperger syndrome, Christopher John Francis Boone. In an interview at Powells.com, Haddon claimed that this was the first book that he wrote intentionally for an adult audience; he was surprised when his publisher suggested marketing it to both adult and child audiences (it has been very successful with adults and children alike).[1] His second adult novel, A Spot of Bother, was published in September 2006.

His short story "The Pier Falls" was longlisted for the 2015 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award, the richest prize in the world for a single short story.[3]

Personal life

Haddon is a vegetarian. He describes himself as a "hard-line atheist".[4][5]

Haddon lives in Oxford with his wife Sos Eltis, a Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford, and their two young sons.[4]

Works

Youth titles

For adults

Poetry volume

References

  1. 1 2 "The curiously irresistible literary debut of Mark Haddon '", Powells.com. Retrieved 31 Aug 2011.
  2. ↑ The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2003 (top page). guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
  3. ↑ "World's Richest Story Prize". The Sunday Times. 1 February 2015.
  4. 1 2 'Inside a curious mind', Times Online. Retrieved 11 May 2008.
  5. ↑ 'B is for bestseller', The Observer. Retrieved 11 May 2008.
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