Paul Stewart (writer)
Encyclopedia
Paul Stewart is a writer of children's books
, best known for the bestselling The Edge Chronicles
, the Free Lance novels and the Far Flung Adventures series which are written in collaboration with the illustrator Chris Riddell
. Paul Stewart lives in the British seaside city of Brighton with his wife and children.
in 1955 His family lived first in Muswell Hill
, North London and later in Morden
, South London, where he went to school. His favourite subject at school was English and he hated Maths. When Paul left school, he went travelling, spending several months in Greece, where he took various jobs, including picking oranges and grapes, and whitewashing hotels.
From 1974-1977, Paul studied at the University of Lancaster, majoring in English, (which included a Creative Writing unit) with a minor in Religious Education. On graduation, he went travelling again, before enrolling in 1978 to do an M.A. in Creative Writing
with Angela Carter
and Malcolm Bradbury
at the University of East Anglia
. He went to Heidelberg, Germany
in 1979 for three years, both as a teacher of English and as a student at Heidelberg University, learning German. In 1982, he went to Sri Lanka
to teach English as a foreign language returning to the UK a year later where he continued to teach (1983–90) before becoming a full-time writer.
Paul Stewart’s first book to be published was The Thought Domain (1988) which was then followed by a number of other children’s and young adult novels, chiefly in the thriller, horror and SF/Fantasy genres. Paul Stewart’s only adult book to date, Trek, was published in 1991.
by Norton Juster
, Lewis Carroll
's Alice in Wonderland, Rupert Bear
Annuals, and the works of Alan Garner
, especially Elidor
. He also read a lot of science fiction
.
Paul Stewart started writing at a very young age. At the age of seven, he was writing a series about a snail called Oliver and at 10, he started writing a sequel to The Phantom Tolbooth. Some of the ideas from this early work were later developed and became the basis of ‘’The Thought Domain’’ which was published in 1988.
). The inspiration for The Edge Chronicles came from a map Chris Riddell drew of an imaginary world in 1994 and then challenged Paul to write about it. The first book in the sequence, Beyond the Deepwoods, was commissioned by Transworld Publishers (now part of the Random House
Group) on the basis of the map and the first four chapters. The book then took three years to write as Paul and Chris worked out both the plot and how best to work together. Originally commissioned as a single book, Paul and Chris hoped that it might become a trilogy. The series has now extended to ten books, three trilogies and a concluding novel, The Immortals, which was published in 2009.
When writing together, Paul and Chris work on the development of plots and characters together, sometimes starting from a bit of writing, sometimes from an illustration on one of Chris’s sketchbooks. They have long conversations over many days, during which the novels emerge. They don’t always agree and the debates can become quite heated but they have remained good friends. Following these discussions, Paul normally writes a first draft, which Chriis will edit or rewrite before Paul produces a final draft.
As well as The Edge Chronicles, Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell have also collaborated on a trilogy of shorter adventures, Freelance; a quartet of younger books, The Far Flung Adventures, the first of which, Fergus Crane, won the Nestle Smarties Gold Prize in 2004; The Blobheads series (2000–2004); Muddle Earth (2003), and a further quartet, Barnaby Grimes (2007–2009). Their latest novel, Wyrmweald, was published by Doubleday Children’s Books in April 2010.
External links=
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
, best known for the bestselling The Edge Chronicles
The Edge Chronicles
The Edge Chronicles is a young-adult fantasy novel series by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell. It consists of three trilogies, plus three additional books, and others . Originally published in the United Kingdom, this series has since been published in the United States, Canada and Australia. To...
, the Free Lance novels and the Far Flung Adventures series which are written in collaboration with the illustrator Chris Riddell
Chris Riddell
Chris Riddell is a British illustrator and occasional writer of children's literature, and a political cartoonist for The Observer. He has won the Kate Greenaway Medal twice and the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize seven times....
. Paul Stewart lives in the British seaside city of Brighton with his wife and children.
Background
Paul Stewart was born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1955 His family lived first in Muswell Hill
Muswell Hill
Muswell Hill is a suburb of north London, mostly in the London Borough of Haringey. It is situated about north of Charing Cross and around from the City of London. Muswell Hill is in the N10 postal district and mostly in the Hornsey and Wood Green parliamentary constituency.- History :The...
, North London and later in Morden
Morden
Morden is a district in the London Borough of Merton. It is located approximately South-southwest of central London between Merton Park , Mitcham , Sutton and Worcester Park .- Origin of name :...
, South London, where he went to school. His favourite subject at school was English and he hated Maths. When Paul left school, he went travelling, spending several months in Greece, where he took various jobs, including picking oranges and grapes, and whitewashing hotels.
From 1974-1977, Paul studied at the University of Lancaster, majoring in English, (which included a Creative Writing unit) with a minor in Religious Education. On graduation, he went travelling again, before enrolling in 1978 to do an M.A. in Creative Writing
Creative writing
Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems...
with Angela Carter
Angela Carter
Angela Carter was an English novelist and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picaresque works...
and Malcolm Bradbury
Malcolm Bradbury
Sir Malcolm Stanley Bradbury CBE was an English author and academic.-Life:Bradbury was the son of a railwayman. His family moved to London in 1935, but returned to Sheffield in 1941 with his brother and mother...
at the University of East Anglia
University of East Anglia
The University of East Anglia is a public research university based in Norwich, United Kingdom. It was established in 1963, and is a founder-member of the 1994 Group of research-intensive universities.-History:...
. He went to Heidelberg, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in 1979 for three years, both as a teacher of English and as a student at Heidelberg University, learning German. In 1982, he went to Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
to teach English as a foreign language returning to the UK a year later where he continued to teach (1983–90) before becoming a full-time writer.
Paul Stewart’s first book to be published was The Thought Domain (1988) which was then followed by a number of other children’s and young adult novels, chiefly in the thriller, horror and SF/Fantasy genres. Paul Stewart’s only adult book to date, Trek, was published in 1991.
Literary Influences
Paul Stewart's favourite books when a child were The Phantom TollboothThe Phantom Tollbooth
The Phantom Tollbooth is a children's adventure novel and modern fairy tale published in 1961, written by Norton Juster and illustrated by Jules Feiffer. It tells the story of a bored young boy named Milo who unexpectedly receives a magic tollbooth one afternoon and, having nothing better to do,...
by Norton Juster
Norton Juster
Norton Juster is an American architect and author. He is best known as an author of children's books, including The Phantom Tollbooth and The Dot and the Line.- Biography :...
, Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
's Alice in Wonderland, Rupert Bear
Rupert Bear
Rupert Bear is a children's comic strip character, who features in a series of books based around his adventures. The character was created by the English artist Mary Tourtel and first appeared in the Daily Express on 8 November 1920. Rupert's initial purpose was to win sales from the rival...
Annuals, and the works of Alan Garner
Alan Garner
With his first book published, Garner abandoned his work as a labourer and gained a job as a freelance television reporter, living a "hand to mouth" lifestyle on a "shoestring" budget...
, especially Elidor
Elidor
-Plot introduction:Originally written as a short radio play, the book concerns the adventures of a group of young teenagers as they struggle to hold back a terrible darkness by fulfilling a prophecy from another world...
. He also read a lot of science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
.
Paul Stewart started writing at a very young age. At the age of seven, he was writing a series about a snail called Oliver and at 10, he started writing a sequel to The Phantom Tolbooth. Some of the ideas from this early work were later developed and became the basis of ‘’The Thought Domain’’ which was published in 1988.
Collaboration with Chris Riddell
Paul Stewart first met Chris Riddell in 1993, through having children at the same school. Chris was looking for someone to write texts that he could illustrate. Paul had already had a number of books published. Their first collaborative work were the Rabbit and Hedgehog books (published 1998-2003 by Andersen PressAndersen Press
Andersen Press is a British book publishing company. It was founded in 1976 by Klaus Flugge, and was named after Hans Christian Andersen. Random House has a holding in the company and has a strong association with Andersen....
). The inspiration for The Edge Chronicles came from a map Chris Riddell drew of an imaginary world in 1994 and then challenged Paul to write about it. The first book in the sequence, Beyond the Deepwoods, was commissioned by Transworld Publishers (now part of the Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
Group) on the basis of the map and the first four chapters. The book then took three years to write as Paul and Chris worked out both the plot and how best to work together. Originally commissioned as a single book, Paul and Chris hoped that it might become a trilogy. The series has now extended to ten books, three trilogies and a concluding novel, The Immortals, which was published in 2009.
When writing together, Paul and Chris work on the development of plots and characters together, sometimes starting from a bit of writing, sometimes from an illustration on one of Chris’s sketchbooks. They have long conversations over many days, during which the novels emerge. They don’t always agree and the debates can become quite heated but they have remained good friends. Following these discussions, Paul normally writes a first draft, which Chriis will edit or rewrite before Paul produces a final draft.
As well as The Edge Chronicles, Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell have also collaborated on a trilogy of shorter adventures, Freelance; a quartet of younger books, The Far Flung Adventures, the first of which, Fergus Crane, won the Nestle Smarties Gold Prize in 2004; The Blobheads series (2000–2004); Muddle Earth (2003), and a further quartet, Barnaby Grimes (2007–2009). Their latest novel, Wyrmweald, was published by Doubleday Children’s Books in April 2010.
Awards
- 2004 Smarties Prize Gold Medal, 6-8 Category: Fergus CraneFergus CraneFergus Crane is a children's book written by Paul Stewart and illustrated by Chris Riddell, published in 2004. It won the Nestlé Children's Book Prize Gold Award the same year.-Plot summary:...
- 2005 Smarties Prize Silver Medal 6-8 Category: Corby FloodCorby FloodCorby Flood is a children's book written by Paul Stewart and illustrated by Chris Riddell, published in 2005. It won the Nestlé Children's Book Prize Silver Award.Corby Flood was an average girl in an average family...
- 2006 Smarties Prize Silver Medal 6-8 Category: Hugo PepperHugo PepperHugo Pepper is a children's book written by Paul Stewart and illustrated by Chris Riddell, published in 2006. It won the Nestlé Children's Book Prize Silver Award and was longlisted for the Carnegie Medal.-Plot introduction:...
Fiction
- The Thought Domain, illustrated by Jon Riley. London: Viking, 1988; New York: Puffin, 1989
- The Weather Witch, illustrated by Jon Riley. London: Viking, 1989; New York: Puffin, 1990
- Adam's Ark, illustrated by Kevin Jones. London: Viking 1990; New York: Puffin 1992
- Giant Gutso and the Wacky Gang, illustrated by Colin West. London: Orchard, 1991
- Rory McCory's Nightmare Machine,illustrated by Paul Finn. London: Viking, 1992; New York: Puffin, 1993
- The Snowman Who Couldn't Melt, illustrated by Annabel Large. London: Viking, 1993; New York: Puffin 1994
- Bubble and Shriek, illustrated by Annabel Large. London: Viking, 19993: New York: Puffin, 1995
- Castle of Intrigue, illustrated by Jane Gedye. London: Usborne, 1994
- Neighbourhood Witch, illustrated by Annabel Large. London: Viking, 1994; New York: Puffin 1995
- Stage Fright, illustrated by Alan Marks. London: Usborne, 1995
- Brown Eyes. London: Penguin, 1996; new edition, Longman 1999
- The Diary. London: Penguin, 1996
- The Clock of Doom. London: Usborne, 1996
- The Wakening. London: Yearling, 1996
- Football Mad series. London: Hippo
- Football Mad, 1997
- Football Mad: Off-Side!, 1998
- Football Mad: Hat-Trick!, 1999
- Football Mad: Teamwork!, 2000
- The Midnight Hand. London: Yearling 1997
- Lucky Luke and Other very Short Stories. London: Penguin, 1997
- Dogbird, illustrated by Tony RossTony RossTony Ross is a British illustrator and author for children.He is most noted for his work with Francesca Simon on the Horrid Henry books, and has also illustrated the Harry The Poisonous Centipede and Dr. Xargle series of books...
. London: Corgi, 1998 - The Hanging Tree. London: Scholastic, 1998
- Millie's Party, illustrated by Bernard Lodge. London: Blue Bananas, 1999
- Freight Train. London: Scholastic, 2000
- Sausage, illustrated by Nick Ward. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002
- The Were-Pig, illustrated by Tony Ross. London: Corgi 2002
- the Watch-Frog, illustrated by Tony Ross. London: Corgi, 2003
Picture Books
- Rabbit & Hedgehog Books, all illustrated by Chris Riddell.
- The Birthday Presents London: Andersen Press, 1998; New York: HarperCollins,2000
- A Little Bit of Winter. London: Andersen Press, 1998; New York: HarperColiins, 1999
- Rabbit's Wish. London: Andersen Press, 2001; New York: HarperCollins 2001
- What Do You Remember?. London: Andersen Press, 2002
Fiction co-authored with Chris Riddell
- Muddle Earth. London: Macmillan, 2003; New York: Yearling, 2009
The Edge Chronicles
see also The Edge ChroniclesThe Edge Chronicles
The Edge Chronicles is a young-adult fantasy novel series by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell. It consists of three trilogies, plus three additional books, and others . Originally published in the United Kingdom, this series has since been published in the United States, Canada and Australia. To...
- Beyond the Deepwoods. London: Doubleday, 1998; New York: David Fickling Books, 2004
- Stormchaser. London: Doubleday, 1999; New York: David Fickling Books, 2004
- Midnight Over Sanctaphrax. London: Doubleday, 2000; New York: David Fickling Books, 2004
- The Curse of the Gloamglozer. London: Doubleday, 2001; New York: David Fickling Books, 2005
- Cloud Wolf. (published for World Book Day 2001). London: Corgi, 2001
- The Last of the Sky Pirates. London: Doubleday, 2002; New York: David Fickling Books, 2005
- Vox. London: Doubleday, 2003; New York: David Fickling Books, 2005
- The Stone Pilot. (published for World Book Day 2006). London: Corgi, 2006
- Freeglader. London: Doubleday, 2004; New York: David Fickling Books, 2006
- The Winter Knights. London: Doubleday, 2005; New York: David Fickling Books, 2007
- Clash of the Skygalleons. London: Doubleday, 2006; New York: David Fickling Books, 2007
- The Lost Barkscrolls. London: Doubleday, 2007
- The Immortals. London: Doubleday, 2009; New York:David Fickling Books 2010
The Blobheads
All London: Macmillan- Invasion of the Blobs. 2000
- Talking Toasters. 2000
- School Stinks. 2000
- Beware of the Babysitter. 2000
- Garglejuice. 2000
- Silly Billy. 2000
- Naughty Gnomes. 2000
- Purple Alert!. 2000
- Blobheads go Boing! 2004
A Knight's Story
- Free Lance and the Lake of Skulls. London: Hodder, 2003; New York: New York: (published as Lake of Skulls) Atheneum, 2004
- Free Lance and the Field of Blood. London: Hodder, 2004; New York: (published as Joust of Honor) Atheneum, 2005
- Free Lance and the Dragon's Hoard. London: Hodder, 2005; New York: (published as Dragon's Hoard) Atheneum, 2005
Far Flung Adventures
- Fergus Crane. London: Doubleday, 2004; New York: David Fickling Books,2006
- Corby Flood. London: Doubleday, 2005; New York: David Fickling Books, 2006
- Hugo Pepper. London: Doubleday, 2006; New York: David Fickling Books, 2007
Barnaby Grimes
see also Barnaby GrimesBarnaby Grimes
The Barnaby Grimes series is written by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell, and follows the titular character of Grimes the "Tic-tock lad" and his various adventures - mostly with a supernatural spin to them.-Setting:The fictional city in which the action takes place is...
- Barnaby Grimes: The Curse of the Nightwolf. London: Doubleday, 2007; New York: David Fickling Books, 2008
- Barnaby Grimes: Return of the Emerald Skull. London: Doubleday, 2008; New York: David Fickling Books, 2009
- Barnaby Grimes: Legion of the Dead. London: Doubleday, 2008; New York: (to be published) David Fickling Books, 2010
- Barnaby Grimes: Phantom of Blood Alley. London: Doubleday, 2009;New York: (to be published) David Fickling Books, 2010
See also
- Edge Chronicles
- The Edge Chronicles Twig SagaThe Edge Chronicles Twig SagaThere are nine books in The Edge Chronicles that revolve around three central characters: Quintinius Verginix , his son Twig, and Twig's grandson, Rook Barkwater, all in the time when they are about 13–17 years old...
- The Edge Chronicles: Rook Barkwater SagaThe Edge Chronicles: Rook Barkwater SagaThe Rook Barkwater Saga is a trilogy within the children's fantasy novel series The Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell. The three books were released between 2002 and 2004.-Rook Barkwater Saga Books:...
- Chris RiddellChris RiddellChris Riddell is a British illustrator and occasional writer of children's literature, and a political cartoonist for The Observer. He has won the Kate Greenaway Medal twice and the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize seven times....
- an illustrator who regularly works and writes with Paul Stewart.
External links=
- Official Random House site
- Official Barnaby Grimes site
- Edge Chronicles fansite
- ACHUKA biographical sketch and interview
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2005/mar/23/bestbooks.booksforchildrenandteenagers Paul Stewart's Top 5 Books for 6-8 year olds, Guardian, 23 March 2005
- http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/podcasts/audio/paul-stewart-and-chris-riddell-interview-highland-tour Audio interview with Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell; Scottish Book Trust, 2009, Retrieved 13 February 2010
- Dispatches from the Deepwoods