I was born in Brighton in 1966. After leaving school I trained as an illustrator, and worked for many years providing cartoons and illustrations for the Horrible Histories and Murderous Maths books. My first novel, the epic Mortal Engines, was published in 2001. It went on to win the Smarties and Blue Peter prizes, and a movie, directed by Christian Rivers and produced by Peter Jackson, was released in 2018.
Mortal Engines was followed by three sequels ‐ Predator′s Gold, Infernal Devices, and A Darkling Plain ‐ and three prequels; Fever Crumb, A Web of Air, and Scrivener′s Moon. A collection of related short stories, Night Flights, with illustrations by Ian McQue, was published in 2018, along with The Illustrated World of Mortal Engines, co-written with Jeremy Levett and featuring artwork by an array of illustrators.
Here Lies Arthur, my take on the Arthurian legends, won the Carnegie Medal, and I′m also the author of the Goblins trilogy of comic fantasy stories and the space fantasy Larklight (illustrated by David Wyatt).
In 2013 I joined forces with illustrator Sarah McIntyre to create Oliver and the Seawigs, the first in a series of funny, highly-illustrated adventure stories which continued with Cakes in Space, Pugs of the Frozen North, Jinks and O′Hare Funfair Repair, and the activity book Pug-A-Doodle-Do. Their latest books together are the Roly Poly Flying Pony series: The Legend of Kevin, Kevin′s Great Escape, Kevin and the Biscuit Bandit and Kevin vs the Unicorns.
I returned to older fiction in 2015 with Railhead, a critically acclaimed adventure set in a future populated by thieves and androids, exiles and emperors, insects and intelligent trains. The sequel, Black Light Express, was published in 2016, and the story concludes in Station Zero (2018).
My most recent novel is Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep. Described by the Guardian as 'a superbly weird tale of wonder, peril, tragedy and the thin places between worlds', it is set on the imaginary 19th Century island of Wildsea, where young Utterly Dark keeps watch for even more imaginary islands which appear sometimes on the western horizon, and the terrifying being who lives on them. 'The writing is superbly descriptive, strongly evoking landscapes, weathers and moods. Much of the earlier part of the story feels lyrical and echoes the writing of the period in which it is set, without ever feeling in any way archaic. But… the story rapidly builds to a cataclysmic and hugely exciting sequence of climaxes.′ (Gordon Askew, Magic Fiction Since Potter.)
Just before Mortal Engines was published I collaborated with Brian Mitchell on a musical comedy, The Ministry of Biscuits, which has been revived several times over the years and proved very popular with audiences. Now, nearly a quarter of a century later, we′ve written a new show, Lord God. The music and most of the best gags are by Brian again: it was well-received at a scattering of performances in 2021 and we hope it will tour in 2022.
I live with my wife and son on Dartmoor, where I am currently at work on a new novel.
Photography by Sarah McIntyre
It’s time to announce a new Bonehill Films production. Making Gwenevere over the past couple of years has been one of the most enjoyable things I’ve ever done, so we’re going to try our luck in another genre which combines wild landscapes, dressing up,…
Read MoreThis September Scholastic will be publishing my new novel set in the world of Mortal Engines. Here’s the cover, created (like all the others in the series) by Ian McQue.The rule I set for myself when I was writing this one was that it shouldn’t feature…
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