Thomas Taylor

Biography

Thomas Taylor is an award-winning author-illustrator for children. He illustrated the cover for the very first Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and has since gone on to write and illustrate several picture books and young novels; most recently he illustrated Scarlett Hart: Monster Hunter, written by Marcus Sedgwick. Malamander is his first middle grade novel, which was published to huge acclaim in 2019. He lives on the south coast of England and can be found on Facebook and Twitter: @ThomasHTaylor

Shortlisted Books by Thomas Taylor

Malamander

This book introduces a diverse new detective duo in Herbie and Violet, and is told with such neat storytelling and surprising phrases it would be a joy to read aloud

The Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Week

Nobody visits Eerie-on-Sea in the winter. Especially not when darkness falls and the wind howls around Maw Rocks and the wreck of the battleship Leviathan, where even now some swear they have seen the slimy Malamander creep…

Herbert Lemon, Lost-and-Founder at the Grand Nautilus Hotel, knows that returning lost things to their rightful owners is not easy – especially when the lost thing is not a thing at all, but a girl. No one knows what happened to Violet Parma’s parents twelve years ago, and when she engages Herbie to help her find them, the pair discover that their disappearance might have something to do with the legendary sea-monster, the Malamander. Eerie-on-Sea has always been a mysteriously chilling place, where strange stories seem to wash up. And it just got stranger...

Bought in a frenzied eight publisher auction, Malamander sold in 12 foreign territories before it was even published, and was a children’s bestseller on release. Sony Pictures have secured the film rights for the movie adaptation and Game of Thrones’ Alfie Allen has lent his voice to the audiobook edition.

This book was shortlisted in: 2021


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