Mark Haddon

Mark Haddon, stylized as mark haddon,[1] (born 28 October 1962) is an English novelist, best known for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003). He won the Whitbread Award, the Dolly Gray Children's Literature Award, Guardian Prize, and a Commonwealth Writers Prize for his work.

Mark Haddon
Born (1962-10-28) 28 October 1962
Northampton, Northamptonshire
England
OccupationWriter, illustrator
NationalityBritish
EducationMA, English Literature
Alma materMerton College, Oxford
Uppingham School
Period1987–present (as writer)
GenreNovels, children's literature, poetry, screenplays, radio drama
Notable awards
SpouseSos Eltis
Website
markhaddon.com

Life, work and studies

Mark Haddon was born on 28 October 1962 in Northampton, England. He was educated at Uppingham School and Merton College, Oxford, where he studied English. In 1984, he completed an MA in English Literature at the University of Edinburgh. Since, Haddon wrote his first children's book, Gilbert’s Gobstopper in 1987. This was followed by many other children's books, which were often self-illustrated.

Haddon is also known for his series of Agent Z books, one of which, Agent Z and the Penguin from Mars, was made into a 1996 Children's BBC sitcom. He also wrote the screenplay for the BBC television adaptation of Raymond Briggs's story Fungus the Bogeyman, screened on BBC1 in 2004. In 2007 he wrote the BBC television drama Coming Down the Mountain.

In 2003, Haddon won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award—in the Novels rather than Children's Books category—for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. He also won the Commonwealth Writers Prize in the Best First Book category, as The Curious Incident was considered his first written for adults;[2] yet he also won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a once-in-a-lifetime award judged by a panel of children's writers.[3] It was also long listed for the 2003 Man Booker Prize.[4]

The Curious Incident is written from the perspective of a 15-year-old boy with Asperger syndrome, Christopher John Francis Boone. In an interview at Powells.com, Haddon claimed that this was the first book that he wrote intentionally for an adult audience; he was surprised when his publisher suggested marketing it to both adult and child audiences (it has been very successful with adults and children alike).[2] His second adult novel, A Spot of Bother, was published in September 2006.

His short story "The Pier Falls" was longlisted for the 2015 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award, the richest prize in the world for a single short story.[5]

Personal life

Haddon is a vegetarian. He describes himself as a "hard-line atheist".[6][7]

Haddon lives in Oxford with his wife Sos Eltis, a Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford, and their two young sons.[6]

Works

For adults

Poetry

Play

References
  2. "The curiously irresistible literary debut of Mark Haddon '", Powells.com. Retrieved 31 August 2011.
  3. The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2003 (top page). The Guardian. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
  4. Jordan, Justine (15 August 2003). "Booker longlist includes Amis, snubs Carey". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  5. "World's Richest Story Prize". The Sunday Times. 1 February 2015.
  6. 'Inside a curious mind', The Times. Retrieved 11 May 2008.
  7. 'B is for bestseller', The Observer. Retrieved 11 May 2008.
  8. Haddon, Mark (20 May 2020). "Social Distance: a graphic short story for the coronavirus age by Mark Haddon". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
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