Checkmate (46 page)

Malorie Blackman
is acknowledged as one of today's most imaginative and convincing writers for young readers. Her first book about Sephy and Callum,
Noughts & Crosses,
won the Children's Book Award, the Sheffield Children's Book Award and the Lancashire Children's Book Award, whilst the second,
Knife Edge,
was described by the Guardian as 'relentless in its pace and power . . . devastatingly powerful'.

Her other books for Random House Children's Books include
Hacker, Thief!, A.N.T.I.D.O.T.E., Dangerous Reality, Dead Gorgeous
and
Pig-Heart Boy,
which was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and adapted into a BAFTA-award-winning TV serial. Both
Hacker
and
Thief!
won the Young Telegraph/Gimme 5 Award – Malorie is the only author to have won this twice – and
Hacker
also won the WH Smith Mind-Boggling Books Award in 1994. She has also written an number of titles for younger readers.

Malorie lives with her husband and daughter in Kent.

'Few writers can sustain a plot as well as Malorie Blackman'
Sunday Telegraph

'Blackman is becoming a bit of a national treasure'
The Times