1. David Almond was born on 15 May 1951 and is a British author who has written many novels for children and young adults from 1998, each one receiving critical acclaim.
13 Facts About David Almond
1. 2.
David Almond is one of thirty children's writers, and one of three from the UK, to win the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award.
3.
David Almond's father was an office manager in an engineering factory and his mother a shorthand typist.
4.
David Almond was raised Catholic at St Joseph's Catholic Academy and had four sisters and one brother.
5.
David Almond describes his childhood as one with "much joy" but "much sadness," losing his younger sister and father at a young age.
6.
David Almond was educated at the University of East Anglia and Newcastle Polytechnic.
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David Almond returned to Newcastle and worked as a part-time special-needs teacher while editing the literary journal Panurge.
8.
David Almond published his first collection of stories in 1985, Sleepless Nights.
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David Almond then wrote a series of stories which drew on his own childhood, and which would eventually be published as Counting Stars, published by Hodder in 2000.
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David Almond's works are highly philosophical and thus appeal to children and adults alike.
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David Almond won the Hans Christian Andersen Award for his writing, which biennially recognises the "lasting contribution" of one living author.
12.
David Almond is Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.
13.
David Almond was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to literature.