Skellig author David Almond in conversation

IBBY UK (International Board on Books for Young People) and Books for Keeps the online children’s books magazine, are holding a special event with multi-award winning children’s author David Almond to celebrate the 15th anniversary of his children’s novel Skellig.

Skellig, the story of two children who meet a strange being, part owl, part angel, was Almond’s debut novel. Published in 1998 it won the Carnegie Medal and the Costa Children’s Book Award (then the Whitbread Prize). Skellig has since been published in over thirty languages, been adapted for the stage by Trevor Nun, performed as an opera with libretto by Almond, and made into a film starring Tim Roth.

In 2010 David Almond was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Award, known as the Nobel Prize for children’s literature. This international award recognises the ‘lasting contribution’ of one living author.