Skellig: the 25th anniversary illustrated edition

The bestselling story about love, loss and hope that launched David Almond as one of the best children's writers of today. Winner of the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year Award, this unforgettable book now has captivating illustrations by Tom de Freston to celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary.

When a move to a new house coincides with his baby sister's illness, Michael's world seems suddenly lonely and uncertain.

One Sunday afternoon, he stumbles into the ramshackle garage of his new home and finds something magical. A strange creature - human? beast? bird? angel? - a being who needs Michael's help if he is to survive. With his new friend Mina, Michael nourishes Skellig back to health.

But Skellig is far more than he at first appears, and as he helps Michael breathe life into his tiny sister, Michael's world changes for ever ...

Skellig won the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children's Book Award. David Almond is also winner of the Hans Christian Andersen award, the Nonino International Prize, and has received an OBE for services to literature. He is celebrated as - in the words of the Independent - 'a master storyteller'.

'This strange, hugely readable and life-affirming tale exercises every muscle of the imagination' Guardian

David Almond's 1998 novel Skellig is a stone-cold classic. It's beautiful and weird and almost suffocatingly good in its depiction of a boy who discovers a strange creature in a crumbing garage while his baby sister fights for her life in hospital The Times
Skellig still such an electrifying read 26 years on The Times
I can't imagine the story of Skellig without Tom de Freston's gorgeous, inky illustrations, which create such an atmosphere throughout my 25th anniversary edition The Times

David Almond is the author of Skellig, My Name is Mina, Island, Bone Music and many other novels, stories, picture books, opera librettos, songs and plays. His work is translated into 40 languages, and is widely adapted for stage and screen. His major awards include the Carnegie Medal, two Whitbread Awards, the Eleanor Farjeon Award, the Michael L Printz Award (USA), Le Prix Sorcieres (France), the Nonino International Prize, the James Kruss Prize and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. He has also won the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the world's most prestigious prize for children's authors. In 2021, David was awarded an OBE for services to literature.

David speaks at festivals and conferences around the world. He is Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. He is widely regarded as one of the most exciting, inspirational and innovative children's authors writing today. He has one amazing daughter. He lives in Newcastle, the city in which he was born.

Tom de Freston has worked as an acclaimed artist for many years, and made his illustrative debut with his collaboration with Kiran Millwood Hargrave on Julia and the Shark. He constructs multimedia worlds, combining paintings, film and performance into immersive visceral narratives. He lives in Oxford, in a house between a river and a forest.

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