Mal Peet
Mal Peet
Mal Peetwas an English author and illustrator best known for young-adult fiction. He has won several honours including the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Prize, British children's literature awards that recognise "year's best" books. Three of his novels feature football and the fictional South American sports journalist Paul Faustino. The Murdstone Trilogyis his first work aimed at adult readers...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionYoung Adult Author
Date of Birth20 June 1947
burger crossing heavy history less liquor prevents store traffic
History is the heavy traffic that prevents us from crossing the road. We wait, more or less patiently, for it to pause, so that we can get to the liquor store or the laundromat or the burger bar.
'Keeper' is about fathers, ultimately. and also conservation, commitment and ambition.
children direct
I worry about children not having a sense of any direct connection to the past.
black celebrity female house imagine mad morning pleasant pop roof room south spend stupid time weird
It was weird - writing is a stupid thing to do. I come up here in the morning to a pleasant room in the roof of my house and imagine I'm a black South American football superstar; then I have to imagine I'm a female pop celebrity who's pregnant. It's a completely mad way to spend your time.
ahead book cancer fault good hilary john novels published recently surprising teenage time voted year
The surprising thing is that so many teenage cancer novels are very good. John Green's 'The Fault in Our Stars,' recently published by Penguin, was voted 'Time Magazine''s book of the year in 2012 ahead of Hilary Mantel and Zadie Smith.
barrier teenage
I don't really see any barrier between teenage fiction and adult literature.
movies
I have to make little movies. I have to sit and film.
knew school sports
I never knew that Americans would take up soccer, and it's a gender-free sport in high school there.
authors people
I'm working with published authors and some very young undergraduates and lots of people in between. They are lovely people, and they can write.
certainly forget reading stop sure time understood words
I'm not sure that when I read 'Treasure Island' for the first time, when I was about 10, I understood all the words or what was going on. But that didn't stop me reading it, and I certainly didn't forget it.
faster mark quicker sharper
'Smart', in American usage, is slicker and sharper than 'intelligent'; faster off the mark and quicker on its feet than deep thought.
bloke brings hated pops raymond saying stuck
I'm going to get hated for saying this, but honestly, fantasy is easy to write because you can do anything. It's like when Raymond Chandler brings in a bloke with a gun when he's stuck - in fantasy, up pops a wizard, and off we go.
great historical reader
I'm not a great reader of historical fiction; it's not my favourite genre.
If I were to try to describe the way in which I write, the only word I would use without qualification is 'slowly.'