Half a Creature from the Sea
An anthology of dark, powerful and moving short stories from a master storyteller and Hans Christian Andersen Award winning author, inspired by his childhood in the north-east of England.
A diverse collection of stories from the author of the internationally award-winning Skellig, deftly interwoven with illuminating autobiographical pieces on the inspirations behind the fiction. David Almond says of this unique volume, "Stories on the page are so beautifully neat. All that lovely black print; those lovely straight lines and paragraphs and pages. But stories are living things, creatures that move and grow in the imaginations of writer and reader. They must be solid and touchable, like the land, and must have fluid half-known depths, like the sea. These stories take place in a real world – but in fiction, real worlds merge with dreamed worlds. Real people walk with ghosts and figments. Earthly truth goes hand-in-hand with watery lies."
David Almond is the acclaimed author of many award-winning novels for children such as Skellig, Kit's Wilderness and My Name Is Mina, and has more recently collaborated with artists Polly Dunbar, Dave McKean and Oliver Jeffers on fiction for younger readers. David's books sell all over the world, and in 2011 he was the recipient of the auspicious Hans Christian Andersen Award. He lives in Hexham, Northumberland; for more info visit www.davidalmond.com
Eleanor Taylor studied illustration at Norwich School of Art and Design, then communication art and design at the Royal College of Art; while studying she won the Sheila Robinson Drawing Prize and was shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing Prize. Eleanor uses a variety of different methods, combining paint, charcoal, ink, collage and digital techniques. She lives in Hastings; for more info visit www.eleanortaylor.co.uk