Lesley Howarth

Lesley Howarth is a British author of children's and young adult fiction. For the novel Maphead, published by Walker Books in 1994, she won the annual Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a once-in-a-lifetime book award judged by a panel of British children's writers, and she was a runner-up for the Carnegie Medal.
Reviewers including Philip Pullman have remarked upon Howarth's ability to "humanize" highly technical or unusual subjects, a tendency which she calls "the romance of hard things".

Biography

Howarth was born 29 December 1952 in Bournemouth, England. As a child, she attended the Bournemouth School for Girls, then, as an adult, received education from the Bournemouth College of Art and Croydon College of Art.

The Pits is a Junior Library Guild book.
In January 2000, The Guardian named Mister Spaceman the children's book of the week.

Year	Title	Award	Result	Ref.
1993	'	Whitbread Children's Book Award	Shortlist
1994	MapHead	Carnegie Medal	Shortlist
1995	MapHead	Guardian Children's Fiction Award	Winner
1995	Weather Eye	Nestlé Smarties Book Prize	Winner'
1995	MapHead	W. H. Smith Mind Boggling Books Award	Shortlist
1995	MapHead	Young Telegraph'' Book Award	Shortlist