Piers Torday
Writing Coach
Piers Torday is the award-winning and bestselling author of seven books for children dubbed âthe new master of childrenâs fictionâ by The Times.
Piers Tordayâs books include The Last Wild (shortlisted for Waterstones Childrenâs Book Prize), The Dark Wild (Guardian Childrenâs Fiction Prize), The Wild Beyond, There May Be a Castle (Peopleâs Book Award finalist), The Lost Magician (Teach Primary Book Award) and The Frozen Sea. His latest book is The Wild Before. His work has been translated into 14 languages.
He has contributed short stories to Winter Magic, Scoop and Return to Wonderland, non-fiction pieces for The Writerâs Map and Swallowed by a Whale, reviewed books for the Guardian, the Literary Review and the Spectator, and judged the Guardian Childrenâs Fiction Prize, the Costa Book Awards and the British Book Awards. His plays include the world premiere stage adaptation of John Masefieldâs The Box of Delights and A Christmas Carol.
Piers is also a Trustee of the Ministry of Stories and The Unicorn Theatre, Patron of Shrewsbury Book Fest and an Artistic Associate at Wiltonâs Music Hall. Born in Northumberland, he lives in London with his husband and a very naughty dog. The son of Paul Torday (Salmon Fishing in the Yemen), he completed his fatherâs final unfinished novel, The Death of an Owl, and co-founded the Paul Torday Memorial Prize for Debut Novelists over 60.
If you can return to the site of your foundational childhood experiences, both real and literary, and rekindle the emotions they inspired, you can begin to remember what works for child readers on the page.
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