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Geraldine McCaughrean
It's 30 years now since I first got published, and 50 since I found out how writing let me step outside my little, everyday world and go wherever I chose - way back in Time, to far distant shores, towards my own, home-made happy ending. Not that all my books are an easy ride. I write adventure,... show more



It's 30 years now since I first got published, and 50 since I found out how writing let me step outside my little, everyday world and go wherever I chose - way back in Time, to far distant shores, towards my own, home-made happy ending. Not that all my books are an easy ride. I write adventure, first and foremost, because that's what I enjoyed reading as a child. But since I have published over 150 books now, there are all manner of books in among that number - gorgeously illustated picture books, easy readers, prize winners, teenage books and five adult novels.The White Darkness won the Printz Award in the USA, which, for as Englishwoman, was the most amazing, startling thrill.Then there was Peter Pan in Scarlet - official sequel to J M Barrie's Peter Pan, written on behalf of Great Ormond Street Hopsital for Sick Children. I won the chance to write that in a worldwide competition, and because Peter Pan is loved everywhere, my book sold worldwide too. I can't say I expected that when, as a child, I dreamed of being like my older brother and getting a book published one day. These days I have a husband (who's good at continuity and spelling) and a daughter who is an excellent editor. But she's at the Royal Academy of Dramtic Art now, studying to become an actor. So, naturally, I have turned my hand to writing plays. (So many actors, so few plays!)My Mum told me, "Never boil your cabbages twice, dear," which was her way of saying, "Don't repeat yourself." So I have tried never to write the same book twice. You'll find all my novels quite different from one another. I have also done lots of retellings of myth, legend, folk and fairy tales, and adapted indigestible classics such as El Cid, the Epic of Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, Moby Dick, Shakespeare and the Pilgrim's Progress.Something for everyone, you see, my dear young, not-so-young, eccentric, middle-of-the-road, poetical, sad, cheerful, timid or reckless reader. All they have in common is that they all contain words. If you are allergic to words, you'd best not open the covers.

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Birth date: January 01, 1951
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Community Reviews
Mimia Reads & Talks
Mimia Reads & Talks rated it 5 years ago
3.5 stars. I don’t like the idea that Christmas is whenever we want it but besides that it was a lovely if probably forgettable book
Books Less Travelled
Books Less Travelled rated it 8 years ago
A great children's bedtime story about well known folk-tales and myths. With mythological creatures leading the reader to the Blue Moon Mountain.
Read All The Things! Reviews
Read All The Things! Reviews rated it 9 years ago
This book reminds me of my childhood. When I was around the age of the main character, Sym, I also had an obsession with Antarctica. Just like Sym, I had a shelf full of “ice books.” I read everything I could about Scott’s failed attempt to reach the South Pole in the early 1900s. Also like Sym, I w...
KatiEllenReads
KatiEllenReads rated it 10 years ago
This review can also be found at: Blogger & Goodreads. Where do I start, it should come to no surprise to me that this sequel wasn't going to be very good, yet somehow it was a surprise. Strange I know, but there is a logic to this. For me the surprising bit was the fact that the story went in a w...
Yvette - Bookworlder
Yvette - Bookworlder rated it 10 years ago
Wonderfully descriptive language is the best (or worst, depending on what is described) part of this creative but flawed retelling of the biblical tale of Noah and the Ark. As an adult, this is an interesting re-imagining that doesn't shy away from the gruesome, the brutal, or the smelly. As a child...
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