Michelle Paver

Michelle Paver
Michelle Paver
Born 7 September 1960
Nyasaland (now Malawi)
Occupation Author

Michelle Paver (born 1960) is a British-based novelist and children's writer, author of the six-book series Chronicles of Ancient Darkness, set in the pre-agricultural Stone Age.[1]

Contents

Biography

Michelle Paver was born in Nyasaland (now Malawi) in central Africa. Her mother was Belgian and her South African father ran a newspaper, the Nyasaland Times. Her family settled in Wimbledon, England when she was three. She was educated at The Study and Wimbledon High School. After reading biochemistry at Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford, where she attained a first-class degree, she became a partner in a City of London law firm. Her father's death in 1996 prompted her to take a one-year sabbatical, during which she travelled around France and America and wrote her first book, Without Charity. She resigned from legal practice soon after her return, to concentrate on writing.[2]

Her 2010 novel Dark Matter has been nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award for best novel.[3]

Chronicles of Ancient Darkness

Main article: Chronicles of Ancient Darkness

The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness tell the story of Torak, an adolescent boy from the Wolf Clan, and his friends Renn and Wolf. The main story arc revolves around Torak and his quest to defeat the Soul Eaters, a group of evil clan mages who seek out to destroy all life in the forest in which they live. The books are set in the pre-agricultural Stone Age.

The first of the series, Wolf Brother[4] was published in 2004 and as a whole the books have sold over 1 million copies in the UK.[5] Paver was paid a reported £2.8 million advance for the first book. Ghost Hunter (2010), the sixth and last in the series, won the 2010 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.[6]

Gods and Warriors

Michelle Paver's new series of books for children is titled Gods and Warriors, set during the Bronze Age. It tells the story of Hylas, a 12-year-old goatherd, whose adventures take him to Crete and Egypt, and also heavily features animals in the plot - a lion, a falcon and a dolphin.

The first book from Gods and Warriors is scheduled to be published in the autumn of 2012[7].

Publications

General fiction

  • Without Charity (2000)
  • A Place in the Hills (2001)
  • The Shadow Catcher (2002)
  • Fever Hill (2004)
  • The Serpent's Tooth (2005)
  • Dark Matter (2010)

Chronicles of Ancient Darkness

References

  1. ^ "An Interview With Michelle Paver". The New York Times. 2007-07-15. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/15/books/review/interview-paver.html. Retrieved 2010-05-12. 
  2. ^ "From Africa to Wimbledon & Beyond…". Michelle Paver official website. Archived from the original on 2007-07-12. http://web.archive.org/web/20070712042614/http://www.michellepaver.com/Biography. Retrieved 2007-09-10. 
  3. ^ "2010 Shirley Jackson Awards Nominees". Shirley Jackson Awards. 2011-04. http://www.shirleyjacksonawards.org/sja_2010_nominees.php. Retrieved 2011-04-20. 
  4. ^ "An interview with Michelle Paver". Bookbrowse.com. http://www.bookbrowse.com/author_interviews/full/index.cfm?author_number=1109. Retrieved 2011-02-06. 
  5. ^ Author's press release (8 August 2009). "Michelle Paver's Chronicles Of Ancient Darkness Sells A Million Copies!". Booktrade.info. http://www.booktrade.info/index.php/showarticle/22586. Retrieved 2011-02-06. 
  6. ^ "Winner of the 2010 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize announced". The Guardian. 8 October 2010. http://www.guardian.co.uk/gnm-press-office/guardian-childrens-fiction-prize-2010-winner. Retrieved 11 October 2010. 
  7. ^ "Paver and Seuss among new Bologna deals". The Bookseller. 29 March 2011. http://www.thebookseller.com/news/paver-and-seuss-among-new-bologna-deals.html. Retrieved 16 May 2011. 

External links


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