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Mark Haddon

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Mark Haddon
Born (1962-09-26) 26 September 1962 (age 62)
Northampton, Northamptonshire, England
OccupationWriter, illustrator
NationalityEnglish
EducationMA, English Literature
Alma materMerton College, Oxford
Uppingham School
Spratton Hall School
Period1987–present
GenreNovels, children's literature, poetry, screenplays, radio drama
Notable awards
SpouseSos Eltis
Children2
Website
markhaddon.com

Mark Haddon (born 26 September 1962) is an English novelist, best known for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003). He won the Whitbread Award, the Dolly Gray Children's Literature Award, the Guardian Prize, and a Commonwealth Writers' Prize for his work.

Life, work and studies

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In 2003, Haddon won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award—in the Novels rather than Children's Books category—for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. He also won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize in the Best First Book category, as The Curious Incident was considered his first book written for adults.[1] Despite being categorized as an adult book for some awards, Haddon also won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 2003 for the book.[2] The book was furthermore long-listed for the 2003 Man Booker Prize,[3] and became a long-running stage play.

The Curious Incident is written from the perspective of an autistic 15-year-old boy, Christopher John Francis Boone. In an interview at Powells.com, Haddon claimed that this was the first book that he wrote intentionally for an adult audience; he was surprised when his publisher suggested marketing it to both adult and child audiences (it has been very successful with adults and children alike).[1] However, it has also received criticism from autistic readers for its 'depressing' depiction of Christopher, the autistic protagonist.[4]

His short story "The Pier Falls" was longlisted for the 2015 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award, the richest prize in the world for a single short story.[5] He published a collection of short stories inspired by classical mythology called Dogs and Monsters in 2024.[6]

In 2023, he turned down an OBE for his services to literature, saying: 'I would feel uneasy accepting an honour which presumes an uncritical acceptance of the British Empire as a good thing.'[7]

Personal life

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Haddon is a vegetarian. He describes himself as a "hard-line atheist".[8][9] In 2019, a heart bypass followed by long COVID left him with brain fog that made him unable to read or write. He spoke to The Guardian in 2024 about his five-year-long process of partial recovery, saying that although he still could not read properly, the fog was "starting to thin a little".[10]

Haddon lives in Oxford with his wife Sos Eltis, a Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford, and their two sons.[8]

Works

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For adults

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Poetry

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Play

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Dave (10 October 2006), "The curiously irresistible literary debut of Mark Haddon", Powells.com. Retrieved 31 August 2011.
  2. ^ The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2003 (top page). The Guardian. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
  3. ^ Jordan, Justine (15 August 2003). "Booker longlist includes Amis, snubs Carey". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  4. ^ Barrett, Sara (3 April 2016). "I have autism and the lack of authentic autistic voices in books angers me". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
  5. ^ "World's Richest Story Prize". The Sunday Times. 1 February 2015. Archived from the original on 7 February 2015.
  6. ^ Clark, Alex (25 August 2024). "Dogs and Monsters by Mark Haddon review – myth and legend refocused in deft short stories". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 4 September 2024.
  7. ^ Haddon, Mark (3 July 2024). "Mark Haddon: why I turned down an OBE". New Statesman. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
  8. ^ a b Crompton, Simon (23 September 2006). "Inside a curious mind". The Times. Retrieved 11 May 2008.
  9. ^ Haddon, Mark (11 April 2004). "B is for bestseller". The Observer. Retrieved 11 May 2008.
  10. ^ Haddon, Mark (16 August 2024). "The curious incident of the author who couldn't read or write: Mark Haddon on long Covid and overcoming five years of brain fog". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
  11. ^ Haddon, Mark (20 May 2020). "Social Distance: a graphic short story for the coronavirus age by Mark Haddon". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
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