Appearing:
South Tyneside (11th), Sunderland (12th), Northumberland (13th)
Author Website
Sam Llewellyn website
Sam Llewellyn is a long-established writer for all ages – Little Darlings is his first title for Puffin. The novel is hilarious as it introduces the terrible Little Darlings, children who are capable of driving any adult to madness or despair! The anarchic humour, in the vein of Lemony Snicket and Philip Ardagh, gives this book its child appeal. The rich Darling family really are the family from Hell; their adventures are always fast-moving and surprising and the ghastly parents and terrible children will be remembered long after the book is closed.
THE BASICS
Born - Tresco, Isles of Scilly
Jobs - boatman, bass player, editor, conservation campaigner and journalist
Lives - Kington, Herefordshire
THE BOOKS
Sam Llewellyn’s story of the Darling family “is partly inspired, if that is the word, by my lifelong hatred of J M Barrie’s Peter Pan. This wickedly brilliant adventure will remind readers that reading is fun and not just the hard work it sometimes seems to be. Sam is now working on a sequel, possibly to be called Darling Darlings.
WHAT HE SAYS…
He gets his ideas from, “Talking to children and relations who come sailing on Lucille (Sam’s seven-meter sailing boat), reading other people’s books, watching people on buses. Oh, and sitting in my lofty turret, pondering deeply among the wheeling stars.
One of Sam’s favourite books is Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast, he describes it as “ vast, spooky and not ashamed to be very, very long.
Advice to writers: “Write two pages every day, rewrite the two pages you have written until you are completely happy with them – and be very lucky.
Recommended Reads
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Abbot Dagger's Academy and the Quest for the Holy Grail Puffin Books 978-0141321721 Abbot Dagger's Academy is a boarding school for children so weird, bad or dangerously brilliant they must be locked up far from civilization ...Onyx, Owen and Rosetti are the weirdest, baddest and brilliantest. They have to win the Greyte Cup for Achievement by Founders' Day. But first they have to find it. Easy, right? Wrong! The Greyte Cup is no ordinary Skool trophy. It's the Holy Grail! And someone has hidden it - somewhere in the trackless wastes of time!! So they'd better blast off - right now! Monty Python meets St Trinian's in this brilliantly bonkers comic adventure. The raid of the Knights Templar, the drowning of Atlantis and the extinction of the dinosaurs - as only Sam Llewellyn can tell it! |
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Eye of the Cannon Catnip 978-1846470202 The sharpest seaborne adventure in many a tide! It's 1813 and, like many children, Kate Griffiths has a hard life. Then things get much harder. She stows away on a Royal Navy ship, is mistaken for one of the crew, and fins herself chasing an American man-o-war! |
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Return of Death Eric Puffin Books 9780141318530 Eric Thrashmettle is a retired rock'n'roll legend - or dinosaur, depending on your perspective. His kids - Lulubelle Flower Fairy Thrashmettle (Lou) and Living Buddha Thrashmettle (Buddy) - are mortally embarrassed by his every move. But Eric is broke, his wife Wave is spending a fortune at a distant luxury yoga retreat, his manager Per has disappeared - and the kids want their credit cards back. Lou and Buddy must abandon all pride and self-respect and get their terminally embarrassing dad back on the road so he can sing his epic - and lucrative - hit Pig Train once again. |