Mark Haddon

Mark Haddon (born 26 September 1962) is an English novelist and poet, best known for his 2003 novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Early life and education

Haddon was born on 26 September 1962 in Northampton, England. He was educated at Uppingham School and Merton College, Oxford, where he studied English.

Career

After college, he was employed in several different occupations. One included working with people with disabilities, and another included creating illustrations and cartoons for magazines and newspapers. Haddon worked with autistic individuals as a young man.

He lived in Boston, Massachusetts, US, for a year with his wife until they moved back to England. Then, Mark took up painting and selling abstract art. Mark had a studio on the ground floor of his house; he thought that it looked like a primary school library on the inside. This is appropriate, however, considering that Haddon’s work is a self-proclaimed “distillation of all that was best about school.”

Writer

In 1987, Haddon wrote his first children’s book, Gilbert’s Gobstopper. 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 (and 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, for it was his first written for adults,^[1] and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a once-in-a-lifetime award judged by a panel of children's writers.^[2] The Curious Incident is written from the perspective of a 15-year-old boy with Asperger syndrome. 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 a great hit with adults and children alike).^[1] His second adult novel, A Spot of Bother, was published in September 2006.

Personal life

Haddon is a vegetarian and enjoys vegetarian cookery. He describes himself as a 'hard-line atheist'.^[3] In an interview with The Observer, Haddon said "I am atheist in a very religious mould".^[4]

In 2009, he donated the short story "The Island" to Oxfam's 'Ox-Tales' project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Haddon's story was published in the 'Fire' collection.^[5]

Haddon resides in Oxford with his wife Dr. Sos Eltis, a Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford, and their two young sons. ^[3]

Bibliography

Youth titles

• Gilbert's Gobstopper (1987)
• Toni and the Tomato Soup (1988)
• A Narrow Escape for Princess Sharon (1989)
• Agent Z Meets the Masked Crusader (1993)
• Titch Johnson, Almost World Champion (1993)
• Agent Z Goes Wild (1994)
• At Home
• At Playgroup
• In the Garden
• On Holiday
• Gridzbi Spudvetch! (1992)
• The Real Porky Phillips (1994)
• Agent Z and the Penguin from Mars (1995)
• The Sea of Tranquility (1996)
• Secret Agent Handbook
• Agent Z and the Killer Bananas (2001)
• Ocean Star Express (2001)
• The Ice Bear's Cave (2002)
• Boom! (An improved version of Gridsbi Spudvetch) (2009)

For adults

• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003)
• A Spot of Bother (2006)
• The Red House (2012)

Poetry

• The Talking Horse and the Sad Girl and the Village Under the Sea

See also

References

• Holcombe, Garan. "Mark Haddon", Contemporary Writers. British Council, 2004. accessed 31 May 2011.
• "Author Profiles - Mark Haddon", Jubilee Books, Random House, August 2003. accessed 31 May 2011.
• Haddon, Mark. "Writers' rooms: Mark Haddon", Guardian.co.uk. Guardian News and Media Limited, 29 June 2007. accessed 31 May 2011.
• Freeman, Hadley. "Novelist Mark Haddon talks to Hadley Freeman", Guardian.co.uk. Guardian News and Media Limited, 29 May 2006. accessed 31 May 2011.

External links

• Official website
• Mark Haddon at British Council: Literature
• Mark Haddon at the Internet Movie Database
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time website
• The Official A Spot of Bother Website (UK)
• Mark Haddon interview: Coming Down the Mountain