David Almond

David Almond is a British author of children's and young adult fiction who won the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing in 2010. He is best known for Skellig (1998), a magical realist novel about a boy who discovers a mysterious creature in his garage, which won the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children's Book Award and has become a classic of contemporary children's literature. Almond grew up in Felling-on-Tyne in northeast England, a landscape that deeply informs his work. His novels blend the everyday reality of working-class northern England with spiritual and magical elements, often exploring questions of childhood, death, and the nature of the human spirit. Other works include Kit's Wilderness, My Name Is Mina, and The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean. Almond is also a Carnegie Medal winner and has been widely translated. He was awarded the Order of the British Empire for services to literature for children in 2015.