Marcus Sedgwick


Marcus Sedgwick was a British writer and illustrator. He authored several young adult and children's books and picture books, a work of nonfiction and several novels for adults, and illustrated a collection of myths and a book of folk tales for adults. According to School Library Journal his "most acclaimed titles" were those for young adults.
His novel Floodland won the Branford Boase Award and The Dark Horse was shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. The first U.S. edition of his 2011 novel Midwinterblood won the 2014 Michael L. Printz Award from the American Library Association.

Early life

Marcus Sedgwick was born 8th April 1968 in Preston, a small village in East Kent, England. He has one brother, Julian, and a half-sister, Ellie. As a child he was shy and recalled being bullied at Sir Roger Manwood's School in Sandwich, Kent an all-boys grammar school.
His mother had once worked in Machynlleth at the Centre for Alternative Technology; the area was the setting for Susan Cooper's fantasy series The Dark Rising, and Sedgwick called those books influential for him. He was also influenced by Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast series, which his father had introduced him to.
He studied mathematics and politics at the University of Bath. His father died when Sedgwick was twenty years old.

Career

Before becoming a full-time author, Sedgwick worked as a bookseller at Heffers, a children's bookstore, and in sales at children's publishers Ragged Bears and Walker Books. According to The Guardian he began writing "seriously" in 1994.
His first book, Floodland, was published in 2000, and it received the Branford Boase Award for the best debut children's novel of that year. Floodland tells the story of Zoe, who lives on her own on an island that used to be part of England before global warming caused the seas to rise. Publishers Weekly said that "Despite some page-turning chapters, Zoe and her story lack the credibility to sustain readers through the contradictory themes and sometimes unimaginative prose." Alternative Magazine said it was "a stunning debut novel that precluded more literary brilliance to follow."
Dark Horse was shortlisted for several awards. My Swordhand Is Singing won a Booktrust Teenage Prize.
In 2013 he released Dark Satanic Mills, a graphic novel written in conjunction with his brother Julian Sedgwick and illustrated by John Higgins. His 2015 book The Ghosts of Heaven, a work of young adult fiction consisting of four loosely connected parts combined into an "intriguing" novel, according to Sarah McCarry writing for The New York Times.
He won numerous awards for his writing, most notably the Michael L. Printz Award in 2011 for Revolver, 2014 for Midwinter Blood, and 2016 for The Ghosts of Heaven. At the time of his death he was the most-nominated author for America's most prestigious book prize for writing for young adults. In addition to writing, Sedgwick worked on film and book projects with his brother Julian. He was represented by RCW Literary Agency.
Sedgwick taught creative writing at Bath Spa University as a writer in residence from 2011 through 2014 and wrote reviews for the Guardian newspaper.

Reception

Kirkus Reviews, in reviewing his 2016 Saint Death, called out Sedgwick's "characteristic precision of English prose". According to The Guardian, after the 2006 appearance of My Swordhand Is Singing, his works were "regularly on the shortlist for every major award for his subsequent titles", and although seldom receiving major awards were "always critically acclaimed, much admired by other writers and popular with readers".

Awards

  • 2001 Branford Boase Award – Floodland
  • 2001 Edgar Awards nomination – Witch Hill
  • 2007 North East Teenage Book Award – The Foreshadowing
  • 2007 Portsmouth Book Award – The Foreshadowing
  • 2007 Booktrust Teenage Prize – My Swordhand Is Singing
  • 2007 Renfrewshire Book Award – My Swordhand Is Singing
  • 2011 Blue Peter Book Award – Lunatics and Luck
  • 2011 Michael L. Printz Award – Revolver
  • 2013 Rotherham Book Awards – Fright Forest
  • 2014 Michael L. Printz Award – Midwinterblood
  • 2015 Essex Book Award – She Is Not Invisible
  • 2015 Oxfordshire Book Award – She Is Not Invisible
  • 2015 Rib Valley Book Award – She Is Not Invisible
  • 2015 Spellbinding Book Award – She Is Not Invisible
  • 2016 Michael L. Printz Award – ''The Ghosts of Heaven''

    Personal life

Sedgwick was married and divorced three times. He had a daughter, Alice, with his first wife Kate Agnew.
In addition to drawing and writing, Sedgwick played the drums and was an avid music lover. Some of his favorite writers include Susan Cooper, Thomas Mann and Arthur Schnitzler.
In 2014, Sedgwick was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis. After his diagnosis, he moved to the French Alps and then to Dordogne. His final work before his death was the nonfiction book All In Your Head: What Happens When Your Doctor Doesn’t Believe You? Sedgwick died in France on 15 November 2022, at the age of 54.

Publications

Young adult novels

  • Floodland
  • The Dark Horse
  • The Foreshadowing
  • Blood Red, Snow White
  • Revolver
  • White Crow
  • Midwinterblood
  • She Is Not Invisible
  • The Ghosts of Heaven
  • Killing the Dead
  • Saint Death
  • Snowflake, AZ
  • Dark Peak
  • ''Wrath''

    Dead Days

  • The Book of Dead Days
  • The Dark Flight Down ã

    Swordhand

  • My Swordhand Is Singing
  • ''The Kiss of Death''

    Children's books

  • Witch Hill
  • A Winter's Tale. Illustrated by Simon Bartram.

    Raven Mysteries

  • Food and Fang
  • Ghosts and Gadgets
  • Lunatics and Luck
  • Vampires and Volts
  • Magic and Mayhem
  • ''Diamond and Doom''

    Cudweed

  • Cudweed's Birthday
  • Cudweed in Outer Space
  • ''Cudweed's Time Machine''

    Elf Girl and Raven Boy

  • Fright Forest
  • Monster Mountains
  • Scream Sea
  • Dread Desert
  • Terror Town
  • ''Creepy Caves''

    Picture books

  • A Christmas Wish
  • The Emperor's New Clothes. Jay Alison, illustrator

    Graphic novels

  • Dark Satanic Mills with Julian Sedgwick. Illustrated by Marc Olivent and John Higgins
  • Scarlett Hart: Monster Hunter
  • Voyages in the Underworld of Orpheus Black with Julian Sedgwick''.''

    Adult novels

  • A Love Like Blood
  • Mister Memory
  • ''The Monsters We Deserve''

    Nonfiction

  • Cowards: The True Story of the Men Who Refused to Fight, London
  • Snow. Illustrated by Marcus Sedgwick
  • Be the Change – Be Calm: Rise Up and Don’t Let Anxiety Hold You Back
  • ''All In Your Head: What Happens When Your Doctor Doesn’t Believe You?''

    Short stories and novellas

  • "bad language" in Thirteen
  • "The Heart of Another" in The Restless Dead: Ten Original Stories of the Supernatural. Deborah Noyes, editor.
  • "The Spear of Destiny" in Doctor Who: Eleven Doctors, Eleven Stories.
  • "Don't Call It Glory" in The Great War: Stories Inspired by Items from the First World War
  • "If Only in My Dreams" in I'll Be Home for Christmas
  • "Together We Win". 10 Stories to Make a Difference. Daniel Ido, illustrator.

    As illustrator

  • Outremer: Jaufré Rudel and the Countess of Tripoli – A Legend of the Crusades. Nick Riddle, editor.
  • Counsel, June. ''Once upon Our Time''