Colin Thompson | |
---|---|
Born | Colin Edward Willment 18 October 1942 Ealing, Middlesex, UK |
Occupation | Writer, illustrator |
Nationality | British, Australian |
Period | 1990–present |
Genre | Children's books, poetry, young adult novels, picture books |
Colin Edward Thompson (born 18 October 1942) is an English-Australian writer and illustrator of children's books. He has had over 70 works published and also draws pictures for jigsaw puzzles. In 2004, Thompson was awarded the Aurealis Award in the children's long fiction category for his novel How to Live Forever.
Colin Edward Thompson was born on 18 October 1942 in Ealing, then in Middlesex and now in west London, United Kingdom. His mother changed his surname to Thompson when she remarried in 1953.[ citation needed ] Thompson states that he only met his father once, when he was nineteen. Thompson attended boarding school in Yorkshire and later a grammar school in West London. [1]
Thompson studied art for two years at college in Ealing and Hammersmith, where he met his first wife. He worked as a silk-screen printer and a graphic designer for a while, before attending London Film School and working on documentaries for the BBC. After a divorce, he married a second time and after living briefly in Mallorca in 1968, moved to the Outer Hebrides. He and his wife set up a business as ceramicists, continuing the profession after moving to Cumbria in 1975. Thompson has one daughter from his first marriage and two from his second. He moved to Australia in 1995 and gained Australian citizenship. In 1999 he married Anne, an Australian librarian who had arranged for him to visit a Sydney school. [1]
Thompson's career as a writer and illustrator began quite late in his life. He first took black-and-white illustrations to a publisher in 1990, assuming a story would be written by someone else to go with his images. He was, however, instructed to write the story himself and re-do his illustrations in colour. His first picture book was published in 1991, Ethel the Chicken. [2] As of 2015, he has had over 70 books published. Many of them are books for children and are self-illustrated. He has also published a few series of novels for pre-teens and young adults.
Thompson's detailed, whimsical, colourful illustrations are popular as jigsaw puzzles and cross stitch kits with many of his works featured in jigsaws by Ravensburger and cross stitch kits by GeckoRouge. [3]
Colin Thompson's first literary recognition came in 1995 when Ruby was awarded the English 4–11 Picture Book Award by the English Association. [4]
In 1999 Staircase Cat was shortlisted in the picture book category for the Children's Book of the Year Award by the Children's Book Council of Australia. In the following years, Thompson had success in this category four more times, winning the award for best picture book in 2006 with The Short and Incredibly Happy Life of Riley. [5] His titles that were finalists in other years are The Violin Man, Dust, and The Big Little Book of Happy Sadness, in 2004, 2008, and 2009 respectively. [5] [6] [7]
In 2004, Thompson's novel How to Live Forever was awarded the Aurealis Award in the children's long fiction category. The Floods Family Files was a finalist in the best graphic novel category in 2008. [8] Thompson was added to the International Board on Books for Young People honour list in 2002 for his illustrations in Falling Angels. [9]
Castles was awarded the Hampshire Illustrated Book Award in 2007. [10]
Children's storiesPicture books (self-illustrated)
Picture books
| Children's poetry
Young adult fictionNovels
The Floods series
The Dragons series
Watch This Space series
Fiction
|
Ravensburger AG is a German game, puzzle and toy company, publishing house, and leader in the European jigsaw puzzle market.
The Aurealis Award for Excellence in Speculative Fiction is an annual literary award for Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror fiction. Only Australians are eligible for the award.
Graeme Rowland Base is a British-Australian author and artist of picture books. He is perhaps best known for his second book, Animalia published in 1986, and third book The Eleventh Hour which was released in 1989.
Tohby Riddle is an Australian artist and writer/illustrator of picture books and illustrated books that have been published in many countries, and translated into many languages, around the world. His work has been translated by Haruki Murakami and he has been nominated for the 2022 Hans Christian Andersen Medal.
Shaun Tan is an Australian artist, writer and film maker. He won an Academy Award for The Lost Thing, a 2011 animated film adaptation of a 2000 picture book he wrote and illustrated. Other books he has written and illustrated include The Red Tree and The Arrival.
Margaret Wild is an Australian children's writer. She has written more than 40 books for children. Her work has been published around the world and has won several awards. She was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Children's Book Council of Australia in 2022.
Michael Gerard Bauer is an Australian full-time children's and young adult author, and was formerly an English teacher.
Jack Heath is an Australian writer of fiction for children and adults who is best known for the Danger, Scream, Liars and Timothy Blake series. He has been shortlisted for the ACT Book of the Year Award, CBCA Notable Book Award, Nottinghamshire Brilliant Book Award, the Aurealis Sci-Fi book of the Year, the National Year of Reading "Our Story" Collection, a Young Australians Best Book Award, a Kids Own Australian Literature Award and the Australian of the Year Award. He lives in Gungahlin, Canberra.
Pamela Freeman is an Australian author of books for both adults and children. Most of her work is fantasy but she has also written mystery stories, science fiction, family dramas and non-fiction. Her first adult series, the Castings Trilogy is published globally by Orbit Books. She is best known in Australia for the junior novel Victor’s Quest and an associated series, the Floramonde books, and for The Black Dress: Mary MacKillop’s Early Years, which won the NSW Premier's History Prize in 2006.
Gus Gordon is a children's book illustrator and writer based in Sydney, Australia.
Briony Stewart is an Australian writer and illustrator of children's books.
Glenda Millard is an Australian writer of children's literature and young adult fiction.
Kirsty Murray is an Australian author. Murray writes children's fiction with a focus on Australian history. She is known for the Children of the Wind series of children's novels. She is a recipient of the Aurealis Award for best children's fiction.
Jen Storer is an Australian children's author. Many of her works have been short-listed for major Australian awards such as, the Prime Minister's Literary Awards, the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year and the Aurealis Awards. Her works feature strong female characters, humour, adventure and, occasionally, elements of horror.
Albert Henry Ullin was a German Australian bookseller and the founder of Australia's first children's bookstore, The Little Bookroom. He nurtured emerging children's writers and illustrators.
Bren MacDibble is a New Zealand-born writer of children's and young adult books based in Australia. Bren also writes under the name Cally Black. She uses the alias to distinguish between books written for younger children and books written for young adults.
Gabrielle Wang is an Australian writer and illustrator for children and young adults based in Melbourne. Her writing career spans 20 years and has produced more than 20 books.