Almond, David (1951-…), is a British author whose fiction appeals to both children and adults. Almond grew up in northeast England, an area that had a major influence on his work. His novels and stories reflect the landscape, people, and legends of the area, notably its eerie abandoned coal mines. Almond’s poetic writing style contributes to the mysterious, sometimes supernatural character of his stories.
Almond began his writing career with two collections of adult short stories, Sleepless Nights (1985) and A Kind of Heaven (1997). He became immediately famous with his young adult novel Skellig (1998). The story tells how a boy named Michael finds a creature who is part man and part angel living in the family garage. Michael befriends the sickly creature and brings him food and medicine. The novel mixes everyday realism with mystery and tragedy that the author leaves unexplained.
Almond’s young adult novel Kit’s Wilderness (1999) was inspired by Almond’s childhood memories. It describes an ancient coal mining town where Kit Watson and his family move to care for his widowed grandfather. Kit meets John Askew, a moody boy who introduces him to a game called “Death” played in the dark, abandoned mines. Through the game, the boys try to find the childhood ghosts of ancestors who died in an 1821 mining disaster. Written in haunting, lyrical prose, Kit’s Wilderness explores the magical power of family, memory, and friendship in Kit’s life. In the United States, Kit’s Wilderness won the 2001 Michael L. Printz Award for “literary excellence in young adult literature.”
In 2000, Almond published Counting Stars, a collection of children’s stories inspired by the author’s memories of his childhood and family. The Fire-Eaters (2003) tells about young Bobby Burns and his encounters with a fire-eating entertainer named McNulty. My Name Is Mina (2010) deals with events before the story in Skellig. Almond’s later young adult novels include The Tightrope Walkers (2014) and The Colour of the Sun (2018). In addition, he wrote the illustrated books The Boy Who Climbed into the Moon (2010), The Boy Who Swam with Piranhas (2012), Mouse Bird Snake Wolf (2013), The Dam (2018), Joe Quinn’s Poltergeist (2019), and The Woman Who Turned Children into Birds (2022). Almond also wrote the novel The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean (2011) in both adult and young adult versions.
Almond was born on May 15, 1951, in Newcastle upon Tyne. He grew up in the small mining town of Felling. He received a B.A. degree from the University of East Anglia in 1975 and taught in primary, adult, and special education schools for several years. Almond quit his full-time teaching job in 1982 to concentrate on writing. He also edited a literary magazine from 1987 to 1993. In 2010, Almond received the international Hans Christian Andersen Award for lifetime achievement in children’s literature.
