Anthony McGowan

Anthony John McGowan (born January 1965) is an English author of books for children, teenagers and adults.

McGowan went on to study Philosophy and Politics at Manchester University, obtaining a BA in 1986 and an M.Phil in 1990.

He earned his PhD from the Open University in 1996 with a thesis titled The sublime machine: conceptions of masculine beauty 1750-1850.

Before turning to writing full-time, he worked as a nightclub bouncer, a journalist and a civil servant.

McGowan wrote his first book, the gory and violent Abandon Hope, while working as a civil servant, but it was rejected by every publisher to which he sent it.

When his wife Rebecca Campbell (then working as a fashion designer and executive) wrote a successful novel about the fashion industry, her agent offered to take McGowan on as a client, as well, on condition that he write something "saner" and "more commercial".

His adult thriller Stag Hunt was published by Hodder & Stoughton in 2004 and received positive reviews.

But then a mistake was made printing the barcode on the paperback edition, and all the copies had to be recalled.

Paperback sales tanked as a result, and his career as an adult novelist stalled.

He rewrote his first, unpublished book, Abandon Hope, to make it appropriate for teens by taking out some of the more explicit parts and re-titled it Hellbent. The comical tale of a teenager who has died and gone to Hell was published in 2005 by Random House and was shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award.

The Times described it as "dazzlingly clever and disgustingly funny."

McGowan went on to win the 2006 Booktrust Teenage Prize with his next young adult book, Henry Tumour, about a boy whose brain tumor won't stop talking to him.

He modeled the relationship of Henry and his tumor on that of Falstaff and young Hal in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1.

The Guardian said of it: "This is one teen cancer book among many, but truly it’s not like any other you may have come across. For one thing, it’s funny – grimly, hilariously so...Original, smart and gripping, Henry Tumour breaks all kinds of rules, and does it with irresistible brio."

His agent next suggested that he write a book inspired by a series of knife crimes that were in the news at the time.

He would return to the genre in 2007 after finding success as a young adult author: his second adult thriller Mortal Coil (2007), was described by Kirkus Reviews as "a shady and literate thriller that oozes down-and-out ambiance."

He turned to writing books for a teenage audience and soon found success.

The Knife That Killed Me (2008) is the story of a 16-year-old boy whose relationship with the school bully has tragic results.

The Guardian reviewed it, saying "It's believable. It's upsetting. Anthony McGowan's insight is razor-sharp. If there's an author writing for children today who can really inhabit the skin of his characters, it's McGowan...McGowan is a wonderful writer."

The book was longlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and the Carnegie Medal and shortlisted for the Booktrust Teenage Prize and the Young Minds Book Award.

The Fall, about the dire consequences of a practical joke, was published in 2011.

He continued writing for Barrington Stoke with four novellas in The Truth of Things series about northern working-class brothers Nicky and Kenny, the older of whom is learning disabled, who deal with a troubled home life and other challenges.

McGowan's 2013 book Hello Darkness looked at mental illness through the story of a teenage boy accused of killing school pets.

Tony Bradman reviewed it for the Guardian and wrote: "the genius of Hello Darkness...is that like Henry Tumour, which also deals with a very difficult subject, it isn't relentlessly serious, but clever and darkly funny."

He also writes books for Barrington Stoke, which specializes in short books with simple language for dyslexic and reluctant readers.

Brock came out in 2013, Pike in 2015, Rook in 2017 and Lark in 2019.

In 2014 he said of it "I've never really left that school. In my imagination, I'm still there. All my books are set there. When I close my eyes at night, I'm back in that classroom."

It was made into a film of the same title that was released in 2014.

Nicolette Jones wrote of it, "'It is funny, scatological, terrifying, heartwarming and heartbreaking, and is written in everyday prose through teenage Nicky’s convincing voice. The boys, whose family life has been rocky, but whose bond with each other is powerful, are touching and brave and also ordinary. McGowan creates characters whose background (working-class northern) is too little represented in fiction for young people, and he makes us know them and live their experience as if we were there.'"McGowan collaborated with author Joanna Nadin on the book Everybody Hurts (2017), a love story between two teenagers of different social classes.

Based on an idea by McGowan, he and Nadin took turns writing alternating chapters, with McGowan writing as the male character and Nadin as the female.

He said in 2018: "Writing for Barrington Stoke definitely made me change my prose style. And, I think, it was a change for the better. My earlier books are written in a rather complex 'look at me'; sort of style. There's a lot of showing off, a lot of proving how clever I am. But writing for Barrington Stoke made me focus on the bare bones of what makes us want to read: on character (above all), on the story, on the setting."

He is the winner of the 2020 CILIP Carnegie Medal for Lark.

In addition to his 2020 win, he has been twice longlisted (for The Knife That Killed Me in 2008 and Brock in 2014) and once shortlisted (for Rook in 2018) for the CILIP Carnegie Medal, and is the winner of the 2006 Booktrust Teenage Prize for Henry Tumour.

McGowan was the second of five children born into a working-class Roman Catholic family in Manchester.

His parents were both nurses and his family moved to the village of Sherburn in Elmet, outside Leeds, when he was a small child.

He has said that he read primarily non-fiction nature books when he was young, but when he was nine, a teacher gave him JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: "I don’t think I’d ever read a novel before, not even an Enid Blyton. It took me several years to finish reading it, but afterwards, I’d become a different kind of person; one who read novels and might one day write one."

At age 11, he was sent to Corpus Christi Catholic College, a state school that he has called "one of the worst schools in Leeds...My upbringing until then had been fairly sheltered and quite rural. Suddenly I was surrounded by lots of disturbed and dangerous kids from a sink estate. Every break-time there’d be fights, and the teachers kept control with absolute brutality. On my very first day, I was talking in line outside, and the next thing I knew, I was looking up at the sky. A teacher had slapped me to the ground. It was a massive shock to the system."

His time at Corpus Christi had a profound influence on him and features prominently as inspiration in his books for young people: "I keep focusing on my school in my work because that’s when stuff happened in my head. Every day was full of conflict and terror and excitement. And I wanted to make kids and their social networks the focus of all my books...But also my memories of school are seared into my mind, and they are the stuff that fiction is made of: conflict and love and hate."

Brock was long-listed and Rook shortlisted for the Carnegie medal and in 2020, Lark won the prize with the tale of Nicky and Kenny's battle for survival after a hike on the North Yorkshire Moors takes a dangerous turn.

Lark was the Sunday Times Children's Book of the Week.