His Books
Key Reviews
About Clay
As you'd expect from Almond's previous novels, Clay is dark and thought-provoking. This time around, though, there's no neatly tied-up ending and no redemption. The evil is still out there.
Philip Ardagh, The Guardian
An atmospheric, weird, lyrical and completely engaging masterpiece whose faint echoes of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein just add to its power.
Graham Marks, Publishing News Books of the Year
David Almond's Clay is a subtler, more literary production. The tone is set on page one, where the main character, Davie, dislodges a bit of communion wafer that's stuck to his teeth and then takes a drag on his cigarette. The story is set in Newcastle in the 1960s in a working-class Roman Catholic community. Davie befriends Steven Rose, a new kid in town. He's a strange boy with waxy skin, haunting eyes, a talent for making clay models and an original, not to say sinister, cast of mind. Halfway through, the story takes a supernatural turn - unexpected, but the atmosphere has been so well established that it's wholly believable when it occurs. This is a weird, haunting novel for teenagers, the kind of novel Graham Greene might have produced if he'd written for this age-group.
The Independent
This is extraordinary storytelling, not beneath the attention of adult readers.
Nicolette Jones, THE SUNDAY TIMES
Like all great books, Clay contains tragedy, hope and a sense of right (or down-to-earth goodness) being wronged. It's a reminder, if reminder is needed, that David Almond is the very best author at work in the field of Young Adult fiction in the UK.
Achuka
The climax of this strange, miraculous, beautiful book will make it a classroom classic.
Amanda Craig, THE TIMES
Another powerful and enigmatic novel from Almond.
WRITE AWAY!
Almond's work... like the best literature for children, is in fact simply literature.
Erica Wagner, THE TIMES
Hypnotic story-telling, from the Whitbread-winning, David Almond.
LOOK AT A BOOK
Takes readers into strange new areas of the imagination that are not - like so much children's fiction - fileable under 'childhood issues'.
Claire Armistead, THE GUARDIAN
About The Fire-Eaters
David Almond's The Fire-Eaters is an exceptional novel. Precisely written, it hauntingly evokes the life of a small community at the time of the Cuban Missle Crisis.
Lesley Agnew,
THE BOOKSELLER
Once in a while a book comes along that takes over your head and your heart. David Almond's The Fire-Eaters is such a book. Set more than 40 years ago at the time of the Cuban Missle Crisis, it tells of a small seaside community near Newcastle, living in the fear of the third world war. This brief description does not do it justice, as the novel works on numerous levels. It is a detailed portrait of Bobbie Burns - his family, his community, his school - and McNulty, the wild and strange Fire-Eater. The writing is lyrical and atmospheric and establishes a strong sense of place. The novel engages many emotions and lets you, for a while, live with, and know, this sensitively drawn community.
Wendy Cooling THE BOOKSELLER
About Skellig
' . . . gripping, beautiful and brilliantly written . . . Everyone is raving about this unforgettable book.'
THE SUNDAY TIMES
'Truly original, mysterious and affecting . . . Almond treads with delicate certainty, and the result is something genuine and true'
PHILIP PULLMAN in THE GUARDIAN
'Tremendously innovative, highly original and very moving. David Almond is a fascinating new voice'
MELVIN BURGESS
About Heaven Eyes
'David Almond understands the joy and fear of being alive better than most - Heaven Eyes is a mysterious gift of a novel.'
THE TIMES
'Both original and unnerving, this really is a fantastic book.'
THE BOOKSELLER
'Transfixing - just the novel to usher in the new millennium!'
THE LITERARY REVIEW
'Almond's powerfully original talent has won him the Whitbread and the Carnegie, and really could - or anyway should - win him the Booker.'
BOL.COM
'Almond's story is a beautiful, eerie tale in which the living and the dead find comfort in each other... Like Almond's brilliant Skellig, this is a book about love and faith - particularly faith in yourself and others.'
THE GUARDIAN
About Secret Heart
'As readers will expect from David Almond, there's a sense of inhabiting a strange, vivid world that exists alongside the familiar, and an evocation of wonder in everyday things as well as in the extraordinary. This is a powerful addition to his highly distinctive works.'
TIMES EDUCATIONAL SUPPLEMENT
'This gripping book will enrich your soul and fire your imagination.'
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
'his best book yet... As we have come to expect of Almond's writing, the book has a dreamlike resonance. It is a story about love, persecution, freedom and the conflict between man and beast, perceived here as a battle between machismo and a female animalism'
LITERARY REVIEW
'A life-changing story of hope, love and encouragement for a boy who's been all but written off.'
SUNDAY TIMES
'An exhilarating, though not always easy read for anyone who, like Joe has tigers and larks in their hearts.'
THE GUARDIAN
About Wild Girl, Wild Boy: A Play
'One of the season's highlights. Bewitching.'
THE OBSERVER
'What a terrific writer David Almond is. The new play deals with a serious subject ... with a deep and moving understanding of a child's grief, but with the lightest possible touch. Almond's writing is full of everyday poetry.'
TIMES EDUCATIONAL SUPPLEMENT
'This is a marvellously subversive play.'
THE GUARDIAN
'Touching, beautifully focused.'
THE STAGE
