Piers Torday
Writing Coach
Piers Torday is the award-winning and bestselling author of seven books for children dubbed ‘the new master of children’s fiction’ by The Times.
Piers Torday’s books include The Last Wild (shortlisted for Waterstones Children’s Book Prize), The Dark Wild (Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize), The Wild Beyond, There May Be a Castle (People’s Book Award finalist), The Lost Magician (Teach Primary Book Award) and The Frozen Sea. His latest book is Midnight Treasure. 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 Writer’s Map and Swallowed by a Whale, reviewed books for the Guardian, the Literary Review and the Spectator, and judged the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, the Costa Book Awards and the British Book Awards. His plays include the world premiere stage adaptation of John Masefield’s The Box of Delights (RSC) and stage versions of A Christmas Carol and Wind in the Willows (Wilton's Music Hall).
Piers is also a Trustee of The Unicorn Theatre, Patron of Shrewsbury Book Fest and an Artistic Associate at Wilton’s 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 father’s final unfinished novel, The Death of an Owl, and co-founded the Paul Torday Memorial Prize for Debut Novelists over sixty.
‘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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