Colin Thompson (writer)


Colin Edward Thompson 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.
WWW colinthompson.com

Early life and careers

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. 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.
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.

Writing and illustration career

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. 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.

Awards

Colin Thompson's first literary recognition came in 1995 when Ruby was awarded the English 4–11 Picture Book Award by the English Association.
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. 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.
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. Thompson was added to the International Board on Books for Young People honour list in 2002 for his illustrations in Falling Angels.
Castles was awarded the Hampshire Illustrated Book Award in 2007.

Publications

Children's stories

Picture books
  1. Ethel the Chicken
  2. A Giant Called Norman Mary
  3. The Paper Bag Prince
  4. Pictures of Home
  5. Looking for Atlantis
  6. Sid the Mosquito and Other Wild Stories
  7. Ruby
  8. Attila the Bluebottle and More Wild Stories
  9. How to Live Forever
  10. Venus the Caterpillar and Further Wild Stories
  11. The Haunted Suitcase and Other Stories
  12. The Tower to the Sun
  13. Castle Twilight and Other Stories
  14. The Paradise Garden
  15. The Last Alchemist
  16. Falling Angels
  17. Violin Man
  18. Castles
  19. Sometimes Love is Under Your Foot
  20. The Big Little Book of Happy Sadness
  21. Wild Stories
  22. Free to a Good Home
  23. The Naughty Corner
  24. Barry
Picture books
  1. Sailing Home
  2. The Last Circus
  3. The Staircase Cat
  4. The Puzzle Duck
  5. Unknown
  6. The Last Clown
  7. No Place Like Home
  8. One Big Happy Family
  9. Round and Round and Round and Round
  10. Gilbert
  11. The Great Montefiasco
  12. The Short and Incredibly Happy Life of Riley
  13. Gilbert Goes Outside
  14. Norman and Brenda
  15. Dust
  16. Fearless
  17. The Bicycle
  18. Fearless in Love
  19. Fearless: Sons and Daughter
Children's poetry
  1. The Dog's Been Sick in the Honda
  2. My Brother Drinks out of the Toilet
  3. ''There's Something Really Nasty on the Bottom of My Shoe''

Young adult fiction

Novels
  1. Castle Twilight
  2. Future Eden
  3. Pepper Dreams
  4. How to Live Forever
  5. Future Eden 2: Space: the Final Effrontery
  6. The Second Forever
The Floods series
  1. Neighbours
  2. Playschool
  3. Home and Away
  4. Survivor
  5. Prime Suspect
  6. The Great Outdoors
  7. Top Gear
  8. Better Homes and Gardens
  9. Who Wants to Be a Billionaire
  10. Lost
  11. Disasterchef
  12. Bewitched
  13. The Royal Family
  14. The Floods Family Files
  15. The Amazing Illustrated Floodsopedia
The Dragons series
  1. Camelot
  2. Excalibur
  3. Mordred
Watch This Space series
  1. ''Out to Launch''

Fiction

  1. ''Laughing for Beginners''