-
Access our Top 20
Books of 2024!
Author Biography | Interview | Books by this Author | Read-Alikes
Jonathan Stroud was born in Bedford, England and grew up in St Albans. After graduating from York University he embarked on a publishing and writing career in the game book and non-fiction department at Walker Books. He moved to Kingfisher Publications to edit children's non-fiction, and for a time juggled working with writing; but Stroud is now a full-time writer.
In May 1999, Stroud burst onto the children’s book scene with his first novel, Buried Fire. His second fantasy adventure, The Leap, was published in January 2001 as part of the new Definitions list. 2003 saw the publication of a brand new novel, the first title of The Bartimeus Trilogy called The Amulet of Samarkand, an enthralling new fantasy trilogy about a wickedly witty and thoroughly irresistible "djinni." The Last Siege, published in October 2006, tells the tale of a chance encounter on the snowy slopes of a castle moat which throws together three lonely teenagers whose playful dares turn into a frenzy of nightmarish action when a re-enactment of a castle siege becomes very real.
Jonathan Stroud's website
This bio was last updated on 04/04/2016. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.
Please tell us about background
I was born in Bedford, England, on 27th October 1970. When I was six my family
moved to St Albans, near London, which is where I grew up. From very early on I
enjoyed scribbling stories and drawing, and for a long time the two sides were
equally balanced: pictures interested me as much as words. Between the ages of
seven and nine I was quite often ill, and spent long periods in hospital and at
home in bed. During this time I escaped from boredom and frustration by reading
furiously: books littered my bedroom floor like bones in a lion's cave. I tended
to enjoy stories of magical adventure more than ones about real life – I think
this was because they provided a more complete escape – and around this time I
fell in love with fantasy.
Throughout my school years I experimented with different kinds of writing, often
illustrated. (See Early Stuff for some examples.) I tried comics, gamebooks,
board games, and later poems and plays. Without being entirely aware of it, I
was searching for the kind of writing that suited me best. Meanwhile, I was
getting more and more interested in other people's writing: finally I went to
York University, to read English ...
Eoin Colfer (pronounced Owen) was born in Wexford on the South-East coast of Ireland in 1965, where he and his four brothers were brought up by his father (an elementary school teacher, historian and artist of note) and ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
Ptolemy's Gate
Try:
Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception
by Eoin Colfer
D.M. Cornish studied illustration at the University of South Australia, where he began to compile a series of notebooks, beginning with #1 in 1993. He had read Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast novels, The Iliad, and Paul Gallico's ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
Ptolemy's Gate
Try:
Foundling
by D M. Cornish
We recommend 5 similar authors
.png)
Harvard is the storehouse of knowledge because the freshmen bring so much in and the graduates take so little out.
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
