Mark Haddon

Mark Haddon was born and raised in Northampton. He studied English literature at Oxford and then worked for six years with individuals with special, physical, and mental needs. He taught creative writing and wrote several illustrated books for young children. However, his dream was to write a novel for adults. He achieved much more than that: he wrote "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," a novel for all ages, which has sold over 1 million copies and has won numerous awards. It received two Whitbread Awards—for the best children's novel of 2003 and for the best book of 2003 in all categories—as well as the Booktrust Teenage Prize, Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, W H Smith Children's Book of the Year, The Waterstone's Literary Fiction Award, and Commonwealth Writers Prize Best First Book, and it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2003. The book's rights have been sold in 32 countries, and Warner Bros has acquired the film adaptation rights. Today, Mark Haddon lives in Oxford with his wife, their son, and their cat.