Geoffrey Malone

Geoffrey Malone spent his early life in Africa and did not receive any formal schooling until the age of eleven. He later spent sixteen years as a soldier, then left the UK for Toronto, where he joined a Canadian advertising agency.

An enconter with a colony of beavers in the Ontario wilderness during his stay in Canada, led to his first book - Brunner. He returned to Britain determined to write for children. He has now had eight books published, most of which are about wild animals. They are all closely observed and describe the struggle for survival among differing species, in today's man-dominated world.

He won the (prestigious) French Children's Book of the Year, TamTam Prize, for Torn Ear, the story of a fox. This was followed soon afterwards by the award of the, Prix d' Enfants et Grand-Parents Europeen. In England, he was shortlisted for the 2001 Stockton Children's Book of the Year, with Elephant Ben, a story about ivory poaching.

His subjects have included badger baiting in England; the slaughter of Indian tigers, and life inside a wolf pack, in Wyoming, USA. His latest book, Dead Boys' Club, sees a return to Africa and a vivid description of the horrors of modern day slavery, as a Child Soldier.