Philip Ardagh

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Philip Ardagh
Born September 11, 1961 (1961-09-11) (age 46)
London, England
Nationality British
Genres Children's
Notable work(s) The Eddie Dickens books
[[1] Official website]

Philip Ardagh (born September 11, 1961 in London) is the best-selling British children's author of the Eddie Dickens books, including Awful End (published in over 30 languages). Although primarily known for his children's novels, Ardagh has written over seventy books including adult fiction and children's non-fiction.

In 2004 to 2005, he collaborated with rock legend Sir Paul McCartney and illustrator-animator Geoff Dunbar to create Sir Paul's first children's book 'High In the Clouds'. Published simultaneously in the UK and US and other countries around the world in October 2005, there was an initial print run of half-a-million copies in the United States.

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[edit] Early years

Philip Ardagh (pronounced ar-der) was born on September 11, 1961 and was educated privately at five different schools. He didn't apply to go to university but got a place on what was then Britain's only advertising copywriting course at Watford College of Art.

[edit] Career

After a placement at London advertising agency Darcy McManus & Masius, next to the Libyan embassy in St. James's Square, he found full-time employment at the McCann-Erickson advertising agency, located beneath what is now known as BT Tower. There he first met children's author Anthony Horowitz, who joined the agency just as Ardagh was leaving. Ardagh retired from advertising in 1984 to become a hospital cleaner, writing when he wasn't scrubbing floors. He later became a library assistant for the London Borough of Lewisham Leisure Services (Downham Library).

[edit] Eddie Dickens

After years of working seven days a week writing non-fiction titles and retelling myths and legends (often for 'fixed-fee' non-royalty payments), Philip Ardagh became an overnight success with Awful End.

Ardagh has achieved both critical and popular acclaim for his work. Set in Victorian England, his Eddie Dickens books have been described as "A cross between Dickens and Monty Python" (The Guardian) and he himself as "a national treasure" (The Independent). Popular in Germany, he has won both the Luchs (Lynx) Prize and the prestigious Deutscher Jugendliteratur prize.

Although some American critics accused Ardagh of ‘jumping on the Lemony Snicket bandwagon’, Ardagh actually wrote the first Eddie Dickens book as letters to his nephew Ben long before the first Snicket book was published. Ardagh once described the Snicket books as being more a homage to Edgar Allan Poe, while his own Eddie Dickens books were a homage to Charles Dickens. (The title The Rise of the House of McNally, however, does evoke Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher").

[edit] Eddie Dickens: The Movie

The movie rights to the Eddie Dickens books were optioned by Circle of Confusion's Jason Lust for Warner Bros, with director Francis Lawrence (Constatine) slated in to direct. The option was renewed and Lawrence was replaced by young Canadian director Brad Peyton. Lust has since become a key player in Henson's -- of Muppets fame -- movie division, but remained a producer on the Eddie Dickens project until Warner Brothers' second option ran out at the end of 2006. A number of producers are currently interested in developing the project.

[edit] Unlikely Exploits

While still writing the Eddie Dickens adventures, Ardagh embarked on Unlikely Exploits a three-book series about the fall and rise of the downtrodden McNally family. In the first paragraph of the first chapter of the first book, The Fall of Fergal, young Fergal McNally falls to his death from a hotel window. It was serialized BBC Radio 4. The second book, Heir of Mystery, saw the introduction of Mr Maggs, a man with a head the shape of a pumpkin and with a shark’s-tooth smile. Mr Maggs’s Manifesto of Change is a fine example of Ardagh’s quirky trademark style, with such suggested changes as moving the letter Q further down the alphabet, nearer to X, Y and Z “where it rightfully belongs” and banning the word ‘cruet’ as the collective term for salt and pepper. The final book, The Rise of the House of McNally is generally considered to be Philip Ardagh’s most inventive book to date. Combining new events with those previously covered in the earlier books, the story is told entirely in the present tense, though not chronologically and with some existing characters appearing under different names (unbeknownst to readers.) As with Eddie Dickens, the Unlikely Exploits were illustrated by British artist David Roberts.

[edit] Grubtown Tales

Just before the Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2008, it was announced that Ardagh had signed a deal with his publisher Faber & Faber to write three Grubtown Tales: books for young children set in the fictitious (and rather grubby) town of Grubtown. All three are due to be published in 2009.

[edit] Radio

As well as books, Philip Ardagh also writes for BBC radio. His children’s dramas have included BBC radio’s first truly interactive radio drama, the nightly 'Arthur Storey and the Department of Historical Correction' (in which he also appeared as the announcer), and (for BBC Radio 4’s GO4IT!) the six-week radio serial 'Secret Undercover Vets On Ice' he played himself and also 'pigeon on a ledge'. His adult work has included stories for BBC Radio 3, Radio 4 and Radio 7.

[edit] Trivia

Ardagh has written two humorous books for adults: The Not-So-Very-Nice Goings-On At Victoria Lodge: Without Illustrations By The Author and The Silly Side of Sherlock Holmes: A Brand New Adventure Using A Bunch of Old Pictures. The first uses pictures taken from the 19th-century Girls' Own Paper and the second uses illustrations of the original Sherlock Holmes stories taken from The Strand Magazine. A third, The Scandalous Life of the Lawless Sisters: Criminally Illustrated With What Was To Hand uses pictures from Punch from the year 1880 and is due for publication in late 2008.

Philip Ardagh is also a regular reviewer of children's books for The Guardian and has been a judge for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize.

He appeared as an uncredited extra (background artist) in If Money Be the Food Of Love, Play On, an episode of the cult British TV series Minder, first broadcast in 1984. He played 'man in pub' and 'man on tow path'. Being so tall, he was kept a good distance from the star (Dennis Waterman) on screen by director Terry Green. Ardagh's brother, Martin, provided the car -- a 1956 Standard Vanguard -- central to the story.

Ardagh was christened in Sir Christopher Wren's domed-masterpiece St Paul's Cathedral in London by the Canon Residentiary, Chancellor and Chapter Treasurer, Frederick Hood, who co-wrote, with poet laureate John Betjeman, the introduction to the book Folly Farm by philosopher Cyril Joad.

[edit] Personal life

Philip Ardagh is of Irish extraction. The Gaelic name for Ardagh is Árd Archadh which means the "high field". He is married to a Doctor Coffey with one son.

[edit] Books Written

Philip Ardagh has written over seventy books, including:

[edit] Children's Fiction

[edit] The Eddie Dickens Trilogy

  • Dreadful Acts
  • Terrible Times

[edit] The Further Adventures of Eddie Dickens

  • Dubious Deeds
  • Horrendous Habits
  • Final Curtain

[edit] Unlikely Exploits

  • The Fall of Fergal
  • Heir of Mystery
  • The Rise of the House of McNally

[edit] Other Children's Fiction

  • High In the Clouds (with Sir Paul McCartney & Geoff Dunbar)

[edit] Adult Fiction

  • The Not-So-Very-Nice Goings-On At Victoria Lodge, Without Illustrations by the Author
  • The Silly Side of Sherlock Holmes, A Brand New Adventure Using A Bunch of Old Pictures

[edit] Non-fiction

[edit] The Handbooks

  • The Hieroglyphs Handbook, Teach Yourself Ancient Egyptian
  • The Archaeologist's Handbook, An Insider's Guide to Digging Up The Past

[edit] The WOW! Changing the World Books

  • WOW! Ideas that Changed the World
  • WOW! Events that Changed the World
  • WOW! Inventions that Changed the World
  • WOW! Discoveries that Changed the World

[edit] Truth Books

  • The Truth About Christmas
  • The Truth About Love
  • The Truth About Fairies

[edit] Other Non-Fiction

  • The History Detectives series
  • The Get A Life series
  • Why Are Castles Castle-Shaped?
  • Did Dinosaurs Snore?
  • Philip Ardagh's book of absolutely useless lists for absolutely every day of the year

[edit] Awards

[edit] External links

Languages