SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: Utterly Dark and the Tides of Time
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.philip-reeve.com/
CITY: Dartmoor
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY: British
LAST VOLUME: SATA 338
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born February 28, 1966, in Brighton, England; married; wife’s name Sarah; children: Samuel.
EDUCATION:Attended Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology (now Anglia Ruskin University) and Brighton Polytechnic (now University of Brighton).
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author and illustrator. Has worked as a bookseller; freelance illustrator, 1994—; producer and director of stage plays.
AVOCATIONS:Walking, drawing, writing, reading.
AWARDS:Whitbread Children’s Book Award shortlist and Gold Award, Nestlé Smarties Book Prize, both 2002, and Best Book of the Year designation, Washington Post, Best Book for Young Adults designation, American Library Association (ALA), and Blue Peter Book of the Year Award, all 2003, all for Mortal Engines; ALA Best Book for Young Adults designation and W.H. Smith People’s Choice Award shortlist, both 2004, both for Predator’s Gold; London Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, 2006, and Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young-Adult Fiction, 2007, both for A Darkling Plain; Carnegie Medal, 2008, for Here Lies Arthur; Carnegie Medal shortlist, 2010, for Fever Crumb; Roald Dahl Funny Prize shortlist, 2012, for Goblins; Best Story Book shortlist, Booktrust Best Book Awards, 2014, for Oliver and the Seawigs.
WRITINGS
Author, with Brian P. Mitchell, of musicals The Ministry of Biscuits and Lord God. Author, with Sarah McIntyre, of web comics. Contributor to anthologies, including Doctor Who: Twelve Doctors, Twelve Stories, Penguin UK (London, England), 2013.
The “Buster Bayliss” novels were adapted for audiobook, Chivers Children’s Audio Books, 2003. Larklight was adapted for film, Warner Brothers. Fever Crumb was adapted for audiobook, read by Reeve, Scholastic Audio, 2010. A Web of Air was adapted for audiobook, read by Jenny Agutter, Scholastic, 2012. Mortal Engines was adapted for a film of the same name, directed by Christian Rivers and released by Universal Pictures, 2018.
SIDELIGHTS
Imaginative and fast-paced, the science-fiction and fantasy novels of Philip Reeve—whose very first story, written at age five, was about a spaceman named Spike and his dog Spook—have attracted a large and loyal readership. With his “Predator City Chronicles,” Reeve amassed some of the United Kingom’s top honors for children’s literature, among them the London Guardian’s annual Children’s Fiction Prize. In addition to his work as a writer, which includes stories in the “Goblins,” “Not-So-Impossible Tale,” and “Larklight” series as well as his Carnegie Medal-winning novel Here Lies Arthur, Reeve is a popular cartoonist and illustrator who has substantially contributed to Terry Deary’s popular “Horrible Histories” nonfiction series.
[open new]Concerning his favored genres past and present, Reeve told the English Association: “I loved fantasy when I was growing up, and later science fiction as well. Then I lost interest in it when I was older, and for a long time didn’t read that sort of book at all. For some reason, though, every time I tried to write a story it turned out to be fantasy or sci-fi. I like the freedom of being able to make up a whole world of your own, packed with as many strange little details as I can think of.” A longtime resident of rural Dartmoor, in southwestern England, Reeve told Caroline Carpenter of the Bookseller: “I moved here from Brighton in 1998. I never managed to get much writing done before that, so I’m sure the peace and quiet of Dartmoor helped. I go for a lot of walks on the hills and in the woods, and think about stories while I’m walking.”[suspend new]
The first novel in Reeve’s “Predator City Chronicles” series (collected in the United Kingdom as the “Mortal Engines” novels), Mortal Engines takes place in a bleak era thousands of years in the future. Here, “larger, faster cities literally gobble up the resources of smaller towns in order to feed the never-ending need for fuel,” as Janice M. Del Negro explained in the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books. Residing in a floating London, scavenger Thaddeus Valentine discovers an ancient energy source that will enable his mobile city to overwhelm the stationery but well-defended cities of Asia. When a horribly disfigured girl named Hester attempts to take Valentine’s life, loyal young apprentice historian Tom Natsworthy saves his mentor. To Tom’s surprise, instead of rewarding him, Valentine shoves both him and Hester down a waste chute and out of London. Learning several unpleasant truths about Valentine—including that he killed Hester’s parents—Tom joins the girl’s quest for vengeance as the two cross a landscape rife with pirates and slave traders in pursuit of eastbound London.
“The grimy yet fantastical post-apocalyptic setting; the narrow escapes, deepening loyalties, and not-infrequent bitter losses—all keep readers’ attention riveted,” commented Anita L. Burkam in a review of Mortal Engines for Horn Book. Kliatt reviewer Paula Rohrlick described Reeve’s “wildly imaginative British tale” as “full of marvelous details … humor, and grand adventures,” and Science-Fiction Chronicle contributor Don D’Ammassa judged the book to be “well worth the time of readers of any age.”
The second book in the “Predator City Chronicles” series, Predator’s Gold, finds Tom and Hester in Anchorage, Alaska, a mobile city now under the control of a pretty young woman named Freya. When Freya discovers the town’s history as part of the old continental United States and the lush fields it once controlled in its original stationary site, she decides to ferry Anchorage on the perilous journey back across the ice wastes. When Hester sees Tom kissing Freya, a jealous rage causes her to betray Anchorage’s location to the predatory city of Arkangel. At the same time, a gang of baddies known as the Lost Boys is spying on the city in hopes of kidnaping Tom, while the Anti-Traction League seeks to destroy Anchorage altogether with the help of a horrible cyborg. For Horn Book contributor Burkam, “the technological wizardry” in Predator’s Gold “will gratify young sci-fi gearheads, while the intense emotions drive the thrilling plot at top speed.”
Infernal Devices and A Darkling Plain continue Reeve’s “Predator City Chronicles” saga. In the first, two decades have passed since the action in Predator’s Gold, and Tom and Hester now have a teenaged daughter, Wren, who is being threatened by the same Lost Boys who once pursued her father. As the middle-aged Tom watches, Earth’s population fractures into the competing Traction League and Green Storm in A Darkling Plain ; meanwhile, a powerful weapon—one created by humans prior to the apocalyptic war that destroyed their civilization—hangs in the sky and is poised to destroy everything. Noting that the author’s prose alternates between complex and “sparkling and witty,” London Guardian contributor Josh Lacey concluded that in the “Predator City Chronicles” “Reeve has created an extraordinary imaginative achievement” that ends with a “cunning twist.”
Having brought the series to an apparent conclusion with A Darkling Plain, Reeve returned to the “Predator City Chronicles” world once more to provide backstory for a relatively minor—and mysterious—character beloved by fans of the books, Anna Fang, in Night Flights. The volume includes three vignettes at different points in Anna Fang’s life. In “Frozen Heart,” the young Anna’s capture and enslavement as a thrall in Arkangel lead to the toughening of her personality—and eventually a chance to escape in an enginepod. An adolescent in “Traction City Blues,” Anna heads to London in the hopes of obtaining a powerful weapon. “Teeth of the Sea” brings a perilous mission in Pulau Pinang, Malaysia, and a lesson in trusting, or rather not trusting, others. A Kirkus Reviews writer appreciated the quick thinking and artful cleverness of the heroine, whose Asian identity helps lend diversity to the science-fiction genre. The reviewer praised Night Flights as marked by “solid storytelling with engrossing adventures.”
Described by London Guardian contributor Frank Cottrell Boyce as “a sci-fi Dickens, full of orphans, villains, chases and mysteries,” Reeve’s “Fever Crumb” novels include Fever Crumb, A Web of Air, and Scrivener’s Moon. Serving as a prequel to the “Mortal Engines” books, this series finds the city of London still earthbound amid the detritus of the technologically advanced civilization that collapsed thousands of years before.
In Fever Crumb readers meet the titular fourteen-year-old, an orphan being raised and educated by Dr. Crumb, a member of the Order of Engineers who lives a protected life inside a vast but never-completed statue. While women are considered unsuitable for rational, scientific work, Fever has shown herself to be unusually analytical, pragmatic, and unflappable. Following in the footsteps of her mentor, Fever leaves the safety of her isolated home to work on a secret archaeological site under the supervision of Kit Solent. These new surroundings—characterized by London Daily Telegraph contributor Philip Womack as “a shabby, quasi-18th-century hellhole”—tap something in Fever’s memory that involves Godshawk, a former leader of London and one of the Scriven, a highly intelligent race capable of restarting the machines that now sit idle.
Fever’s story continues in both A Web of Air and Scrivener’s Moon, as she experiences life outside of London and gradually comes to terms with her destiny. In A Web of Air she encounters a reclusive young scientist named Arlo Thursday who is attempting to build a flying machine. While Fever’s intellect and her Scriven abilities make her an ideal workmate for Arlo, her inability to relate emotionally dooms any deeper relationship between the two. The effort to get London airborne continues in Scrivener’s Moon , as do the machinations of those who would stop it. As the city readies for launch, Fever journeys north to discover once and for all the secret of her birth. “Reeve evokes his world masterfully,” asserted Womack in appraising the first “Fever Crumb” novel, and his story “is both a thrilling slice of retro science fiction and an involving fable about a young girl coming to terms with herself.”
Featuring illustrations by David Wyatt, Reeve’s middle-grade “Larklight” trilogy takes readers on a lighthearted excursion into the author’s imagination. Set in a Victorian alternate world where houses float in space, Larklight: A Rousing Tale of Dauntless Pluck in the Farthest Reaches of Space introduces Myrtle and Art Mumby, siblings who live in a floating house called Larklight along with their father. Separated from their home during an attack of space spiders, the children begin an adventure that leads them from the moon and Venus to the pirate ship of Captain Jack Havock. From there, they travel to a scientific institute where they uncover a plot by a mad scientist that involves the invasion of hoards of pesky spiders. Highlighted by Wyatt’s detailed ink drawings, Larklight “melds deadpan comedy, anticolonial political satire, sci-fi epic, and pirate caper with aplomb,” maintained Gross.
Dubbed a “dashing and outrageous sequel” by a Publishers Weekly writer, Starcross; or, The Coming of the Moobs! or, Our Adventures in the Fourth Dimension! A Stirring Tale of British Vim upon the Seas of Space and Time finds Art and Myrtle battling vicious sand crabs as the travel to Starcross, a space resort, with their half-alien-and-older-that-dirt Mum. In Mothstorm; or, The Horror from beyond Georgium Sidus! or, A Tale of Two Shapers: A Rattling Yarn of Danger, Dastardy, and Derring-Do upon the Far Frontiers of British Space! Art and Myrtle join forces with Havock to defeat an army of alien creatures led by the nefarious Mothmaker. In reviewing Mothstorm, a Kirkus Reviews writer noted that “Reeve’s imagination seems to know no bounds as he conjures up ever more ridiculous and hilarious predicaments” for his young adventurers.
In addition to his series fiction, Reeve has created several stand-alone novels, among them Here Lies Arthur and the middle-grade story No Such Thing as Dragons. In Here Lies Arthur he intrigues readers with a new version of the legend of King Arthur. As narrated by a perceptive girl named Gwyna, his medieval Britain is a dark, unsettling place where a subtle magic and evil exist side by side. In this world Arthur claims himself to be king of a band of marauders, while Myddrin (Merlin) is a woman with a talent for disguise, subterfuge, and storytelling. Citing the “deep cynicism” that undergirds Reeve’s tale, a Publishers Weekly contributor maintained that Here Lies Arthur resonates in the present, “neatly skewering the modern-day cult of spin and the age-old trickery behind it.”
Described by Chipman as an exploration of “the cracks between life and lore,” No Such Thing as Dragons focuses on Ansel, a mute ten-year-old who is apprenticed to dragon-hunter Johannes von Brock. A perceptive lad, Ansel suspects that Brock is nothing more than a huckster, using people’s superstitions to separate them from their money. When a dragon-like creature does appear on the scene, both Brock and Ansel must summon real courage as well as sufficient wisdom to deal with it. According to Burkam, the story in No Such Thing as Dragons “is taut with tension and flowing with Reeve’s commanding language.”
Reeve’s “Goblins” series of humorous fantasy tales chronicles the exploits of Skarper, who has been banished by his loutish compatriots from the goblin fortress of Clovenstone, and Henwyn, a cheesemaker with a taste for adventure. In Goblins the duo comes to the rescue of a middle-aged princess, encounters an inept band of wizards, joins forces with a kindhearted giant, and battles the dim-witted goblin king. “With gentle parody and an irreverent sense of humour that will greatly appeal to young readers, Reeve turns the traditional quest story on its head,” Marianne Bradnock noted in School Librarian. Burkam applauded Reeve’s story in Goblins , dubbing it an “endlessly inventive, freewheeling tale.”
A sequel, Goblins vs. Dwarves, was described by Books for Keeps reviewer Ferelith Hordon as “a thoroughly satisfying read for any young reader with a lively imagination and a sense of humour.” As readers rejoin him, Skarper and his allies attempt to fend off the invasion of Clovenstone. A third installment in the series, Goblin Quest, finds Skarper venturing beyond the walls of Clovenstone to bring a halt to the ambitious plans of a haughty prince.
More silliness is served up in Reeve’s “Not-So-Impossible Tale” series of chapter books featuring artwork by Sarah McIntyre. In Oliver and the Seawigs readers meet Oliver Crisp, an intrepid youngster who searches for his missing parents, explorers held captive by an evil island. Along the way, Oliver teams up with a nearsighted mermaid, a cantankerous albatross, and a shy but loyal isle, all which help him combat Stacey de Lacey and her army of slimy sea monkeys. Said praised the “interactions between images, words and design,” adding that Oliver and the Seawigs “offers an experience that is immersive, richly textured and enormous fun.”
Other works in the “Not-So-Impossible Tale” series include Cakes in Space and Pugs of the Frozen North. The first story concerns ten-year-old Astra, whose decision to have the food synthesizer aboard her family’s spaceship create the ultimate snack leads to disaster. In the second, a pair of young sled racers and their team of sixty-six pugs enter a special competition hoping to win the grand prize: a meeting with a guru known as the Snowfather. “Campy, 1960s-style science fiction mixes with zany, kid-friendly ridiculousness for extreme fun,” a Kirkus Reviews writer noted of Cakes in Space. Lesley Martin remarked in School Librarian that Pugs of the Frozen North is packed full of jokes, characters and incident and the plentiful illustrations … are equally delightful with lots of detail.”
In Railhead Reeve presents a story “at once weirdly familiar and marvelously original,” according to a writer in Kirkus Reviews. Set in a future in which humankind travels the galaxy aboard a rail network traversed by sentient trains, the work focuses on Zen Starling, a petty thief hired to steal a powerful artifact belonging to the Emperor. “Reeve has written a superb, gripping page turner,” Trida Adams commented in School Librarian, and London Guardian critic S.F. Said noted that the work’s “greatest pleasures are its details, which are as richly imagined as in the best adult science fiction.” Zen’s story continues in Black Light Express and is part of the “Railhead” trilogy.
[resume new]Reeve and illustrator McIntyre joined forces again for the “Roly-Poly Flying Pony Adventure” series, starring Kevin, the stout flying pony of the title. In The Legend of Kevin, a giant storm sweeps through the Outermost West and propels Kevin out of his nest onto an apartment-building balcony. As the town gets flooded, strange creatures creep onto the scene, leaving Kevin to tango with sea monkeys, mermaids, and diabolical guinea pigs. School Librarian reviewer Prue Goodwin affirmed that “the magical combination of Reeves and McIntyre is becoming legendary. The stories are always written and illustrated with immaculate style and humour.”
McIntyre and Reeve also co-created the “AdventureMice” series of chapter books, starting with Otter Chaos. Not content to live a comfortable life at home, young Pedro sets out to join the ranks of the AdventureMice, guardians of the Mouse Islands. In order to prove himself, he must lead the emergency response team when oversized Otter, who has been a threat to the Mouse Islands, gets caught in an abandoned net near a whirlpool. In School Librarian, David Mallett declared that Reeve “has created an enticing world” and that readers “will be carried along by the pace and excitement of the narrative.”
Inspired by a trip to the Islay Book Festival, in Scotland’s Hebrides archipelago, is Reeve’s “Utterly Dark” series of middle-grade novels, set in the early 1800s. In Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep, young Utterly is stationed on the island of Wildsea when her guardian, the Watcher, who is on the lookout for the appearance of magical isles in the west, inexplicably drowns. Taking over the watch, Utterly gets caught up in drama involving witches, trolls, shipwrecks, stone circles, and a sea monster. Reeve mentioned to the Bookseller that since “the sea has always been an important symbol” in his work, he figured he would inevitably write a novel revolving around it. Regarding the first “Utterly Dark” book he added, “It’s very much the sort of story I loved as a child. I think of all my books, it’s the one I would have most wanted to read when I was nine or ten.” Utterly Dark and the Tides of Time, the series’ third and final novel, finds Utterly trying to return to her sea-mother, the Gorm, but when a creature from another time starts following her, she will need plenty of help from her friends. Charlotte Cole of School Librarian affirmed that Reeve manages to “work his magic once again” in this “whirlwind adventure about nature, family, belonging and friendship.”[close new]
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, November 1, 2003, Sally Estes, review of Mortal Engines, p. 491; August, 2004, Sally Estes, review of Predator’s Gold, p. 1920; May 15, 2006, Sally Estes, review of Infernal Devices, p. 61; November 1, 2007, Todd Morning, review of Starcross; or, The Coming of the Moobs! or, Our Adventures in the Fourth Dimension! A Stirring Tale of British Vim upon the Seas of Space and Time, p. 48; August 1, 2008, Carolyn Phelan, review of Here Lies Arthur, p. 69; January 1, 2010, Ian Chipman, review of Fever Crumb, p. 80; August 1, 2010, Ian Chipman, review of No Such Thing as Dragons, p. 51; October 15, 2011, Ian Chipman, review of A Web of Air, p. 47; October 1, 2013, Cindy Welch, review of Goblins, p. 95; April 1, 2015, Kara Dean, review of Cakes in Space, p. 78; November 15, 2015, John Peters, review of Pugs of the Frozen North, p. 55.
Bookseller, August 10, 2001, Tara Stephenson, review of Mortal Engines, p. 33; June 27, 2008, Caroline Horn, interview with Reeve, p. 10; February 19, 2021, “David Fickling Bags Reeve’s Latest Fantasy Novel,” p. 13; October 28, 2022, Caroline Carpenter, “Five questions for … Philip Reeve & Sarah McIntyre, Author & Illustrator,” p. 12.
Books for Keeps, May, 2012, Andrea Reece, review of Goblins; May, 2013, Ferelith Hordon, review of Goblins vs. Dwarves; September, 2013, Ferelith Hordon, review of Oliver and the Seawigs; November, 2015, Ferelith Hordon, reviews of Railhead and Pugs of the Frozen North.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, March, 2004, Janice M. Del Negro, review of Mortal Engines, p. 294; November, 2004, Timnah Card, review of Predator’s Gold, p. 141; October, 2013, review of Goblins, p. 111; September, 2015, April Spisak, review of Cakes in Space, p. 46; January, 2016, April Spisak, review of Pugs of the Frozen North, p. 269.
Daily Telegraph (London, England), June 13, 2009, Philip Womack, review of Fever Crumb, p. 14.
Guardian (London, England), June 2, 2007, Kathryn Hughes, review of Here Lies Arthur, p. 20; April 8, 2006, Josh Lacey, review of A Darkling Plain; June 27, 2009, Frank Cottrell Boyce, review of Fever Crumb, p. 14; May 12, 2012, Simon Mason, review of Goblins, p. 14; October 12, 2013, SF Said, review of Oliver and the Seawigs, p. 14; October 17, 2015, SF Said, review of Railhead.
Horn Book, November-December, 2003, Anita L. Burkam, review of Mortal Engines, p. 755; September-October, 2004, Anita L. Burkam, review of Predator’s Gold, p. 596; November-December, 2006, Claire E. Gross, review of Larklight: A Rousing Tale of Dauntless Pluck in the Farthest Reaches of Space, p. 724; November-December, 2008, Claire E. Gross, review of Here Lies Arthur, p. 713; March-April, 2010, Claire E. Gross, review of Fever Crumb, p. 68; September-October, 2010, Anita Burkham, review of No Such Thing as Dragons, p. 92; September-October, 2011, Jonathan Hunt, review of A Web of Air, p. 98; September-October, 2013, Anita L. Burkam, review of Goblins, p. 109.
Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2003, review of Mortal Engines, p. 1275; August 15, 2004, review of Predator’s Gold, p. 216; September 15, 2006, review of Larklight, p. 965; October 1, 2007, review of Starcross; October 15, 2008, reviews of Here Lies Arthur and Mothstorm; or, The Horror from beyond Georgium Sidus! or, A Tale of Two Shapers: A Rattling Yarn of Danger, Dastardy, and Derring-Do upon the Far Frontiers of British Space!; March 1, 2010, review of Fever Crumb; August 15, 2010, review of No Such Thing as Dragons; September 1, 2011, review of A Web of Air; July 15, 2013, review of Goblins; April 15, 2014, review of Oliver and the Seawigs; March 1, 2015, review of Cakes in Space; October 1, 2015, review of Pugs of the Frozen North; March 15, 2016, review of Railhead; July 15, 2018, review of Night Flights.
Kliatt, November, 2003, Paula Rohrlick, review of Mortal Engines, p. 10; September, 2004, Paula Rohrlick, review of Predator’s Gold, p. 16; May, 2006, Paula Rohrlick, review of Infernal Devices, p. 13; November, 2008, Paula Rohrlick, review of Here Lies Arthur, p. 17.
Magpies, May, 2002, review of Mortal Engines, p. 38; March, 2004, Rayma Turton, review of Predator’s Gold, p. 43.
Publishers Weekly, October 27, 2003, review of Mortal Engines, p. 70; August 16, 2004, review of Predator’s Gold, p. 64; August 28, 2006, review of Larklight, p. 54; November 5, 2007, review of Starcross, p. 64; October 6, 2008, review of Here Lies Arthur, p. 55; February 15, 2010, review of Fever Crumb, p. 133; July 19, 2010, review of No Such Thing as Dragons, p. 130; March 30, 2015, review of Cakes in Space, p. 75.
School Librarian, winter, 2001, review of Mortal Engines, p. 214; winter, 2002, review of Night of the Living Veg, p. 202; spring, 2004, Michael Holloway, review of Predator’s Gold, p. 34; winter, 2010, Karen King, review of A Web of Air, p. 247; spring, 2012, Sandra Bennett, review of Scrivener’s Moon, p. 57; summer, 2012, Marianne Bradnock, review of Goblins, p. 105; winter, 2015, Trida Adams, review of Railhead, p. 249; spring, 2016, Lesley Martin, review of Pugs of the Frozen North, p. 43; winter, 2018, Prue Goodwin, review of The Legend of Kevin, p. 240; summer, 2023, David Mallett, review of Otter Chaos, p. 59; winter, 2023, Charlotte Cole, review of Utterly Dark and the Tides of Time, p. 55.
School Library Journal, December, 2003, Sharon Rawlins, review of Mortal Engines, p. 864; September, 2004, Sharon Rawlins, review of Predator’s Gold, p. 216; June, 2006, Tim Wadham, review of Infernal Devices, p. 164; November, 2006, Rick Margolis, interview with Reeve, p. 33; December, 2007, Connie Tyrrell Burns, review of Starcross, p. 142; December, 2008, Jennifer D. Montgomery, review of Mothstorm, p. 136; September, 2011, Misti Tidman, review of A Web of Air, p. 168; September, 2010, Tim Wadham, review of No Such Thing as Dragons, p. 163; January, 2013, Mandy Laferriere, review of Scrivener’s Moon, p. 124.
Science-Fiction Chronicle, January, 2004, Don D’Ammassa, review of Mortal Engines, p. 31.
Sunday Times (London, England), October 13, 2013, Nicolette Jones, review of Oliver and the Seawigs, p. 48.
Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), November 23, 2003, review of Mortal Engines, p. 4.
Voice of Youth Advocates, October, 2004, Sarah Flowers, review of Predator’s Gold, p. 318; February, 2013, Amy Sisson, review of Scrivener’s Moon, p. 583.
ONLINE
English Association, https://englishassociation.ac.uk/ (July 1, 2024), author interview.
Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/ (October 2, 2015), interview with Reeve.
Philip Reeve website, https://philipreeve.com (July 1, 2024).
Philip Reeve
UK flag (b.1966)
Philip Reeve (born 1966 in Brighton) is a bestselling British author and illustrator. He presently lives on Dartmoor with his wife Sarah and his son Samuel.
Genres: Children's Fiction, Young Adult Fantasy, Science Fiction
New and upcoming books
March 2024
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Mice on the Moon
(Adventuremice, book 4)September 2024
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The Ghostly Galleon
(Adventuremice, book 5)September 2024
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Thunder City
(Predator Cities / Mortal Engines)
Series
Predator Cities / Mortal Engines
1. Mortal Engines (2001)
2. Predator's Gold (2003)
3. Infernal Devices (2005)
4. A Darkling Plain (2006)
Traction City (2011)
5. Night Flights (2018)
The Illustrated World of Mortal Engines (2018) (with Jeremy Levett)
Thunder City (2024)
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Buster Bayliss
1. Night of the Living Veg (2002)
2. The Big Freeze (2002)
3. Day of the Hamster (2002)
4. Custardfinger (2003)
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Larklight
1. Larklight (2006)
2. Starcross (2007)
3. Mothstorm (2008)
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Fever Crumb
1. Fever Crumb (2009)
2. A Web of Air (2010)
3. Scrivener's Moon (2011)
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Goblins
1. Goblins (2012)
2. Goblins Vs Dwarves (2013)
3. Goblin Quest (2014)
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Not-So-Impossible Tale (with Sarah McIntyre)
1. Oliver and the Seawigs (2013)
2. Cakes in Space (2014)
3. Pugs of the Frozen North (2015)
4. Oliver and the Sea Monkeys (2016)
5. Carnival in a Fix (2017)
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Railhead
1. Railhead (2015)
2. Black Light Express (2016)
3. Station Zero (2018)
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Roly-Poly Flying Pony Adventure (with Sarah McIntyre)
1. The Legend of Kevin (2018)
2. Kevin's Great Escape (2019)
3. Kevin and the Biscuit Bandit (2020)
4. Kevin Vs the Unicorns (2021)
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Utterly Dark
1. Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep (2021)
2. Utterly Dark and the Heart of the Wild (2022)
3. Utterly Dark and the Tides of Time (2023)
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Adventuremice (with Sarah McIntyre)
1. Otter Chaos (2023)
2. Mermouse Mystery (2023)
3. Mice on the Ice (2023)
4. Mice on the Moon (2024)
5. The Ghostly Galleon (2024)
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Novels
Here Lies Arthur (2007)
No Such Thing As Dragons (2009)
Jinks and O'Hare Funfair Repair (2016)
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Collections
Haunted (2011) (with others)
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Series contributed to
Horribly Famous
Henry the VIII and His Chopping Block (1999) (with Alan MacDonald)
Horatio Nelson and His Victory (2003)
Horatio Nelson and His Valiant Victory (2011)
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World Book Day 2011
Traction City (2011)
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Doctor Who 50th Anniversary E-Shorts
4. The Roots of Evil (2013)
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Doctor Who
12 Doctors 12 Stories (2014) (with others)
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Non fiction hide
Pug-a-doodle-doo (2017) (with Sarah McIntyre)
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Omnibus editions hide
Traction City / Tales of Terror (2011) (with Chris Priestley)
I was born in Brighton in 1966. After leaving school I trained as an illustrator, and worked for many years providing cartoons and illustrations for the Horrible Histories and Murderous Maths books. My first novel, the epic Mortal Engines, was published in 2001. It went on to win the Smarties and Blue Peter prizes, and a movie, directed by Christian Rivers and produced by Peter Jackson, was released in 2018.
Mortal Engines was followed by three sequels ‐ Predator′s Gold, Infernal Devices, and A Darkling Plain ‐ and three prequels; Fever Crumb, A Web of Air, and Scrivener′s Moon. A collection of related short stories, Night Flights, with illustrations by Ian McQue, was published in 2018, along with The Illustrated World of Mortal Engines, co-written with Jeremy Levett and featuring artwork by an array of illustrators.
Here Lies Arthur, my take on the Arthurian legends, won the Carnegie Medal, and I′m also the author of the Goblins trilogy of comic fantasy stories and the space fantasy Larklight (illustrated by David Wyatt).
In 2013 I joined forces with illustrator Sarah McIntyre to create Oliver and the Seawigs, the first in a series of funny, highly-illustrated adventure stories which continued with Cakes in Space, Pugs of the Frozen North, Jinks and O′Hare Funfair Repair, and the activity book Pug-A-Doodle-Do. Their latest books together are the Roly Poly Flying Pony series: The Legend of Kevin, Kevin′s Great Escape, Kevin and the Biscuit Bandit and Kevin vs the Unicorns.
I returned to older fiction in 2015 with Railhead, a critically acclaimed adventure set in a future populated by thieves and androids, exiles and emperors, insects and intelligent trains. The sequel, Black Light Express, was published in 2016, and the story concludes in Station Zero (2018).
My most recent novel is Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep. Described by the Guardian as 'a superbly weird tale of wonder, peril, tragedy and the thin places between worlds', it is set on the imaginary 19th Century island of Wildsea, where young Utterly Dark keeps watch for even more imaginary islands which appear sometimes on the western horizon, and the terrifying being who lives on them. 'The writing is superbly descriptive, strongly evoking landscapes, weathers and moods. Much of the earlier part of the story feels lyrical and echoes the writing of the period in which it is set, without ever feeling in any way archaic. But… the story rapidly builds to a cataclysmic and hugely exciting sequence of climaxes.′ (Gordon Askew, Magic Fiction Since Potter.)
Just before Mortal Engines was published I collaborated with Brian Mitchell on a musical comedy, The Ministry of Biscuits, which has been revived several times over the years and proved very popular with audiences. Now, nearly a quarter of a century later, we′ve written a new show, Lord God. The music and most of the best gags are by Brian again: it was well-received at a scattering of performances in 2021 and we hope it will tour in 2022.
I live with my wife and son on Dartmoor, where I am currently at work on a new novel.
Philip Reeve
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Philip Reeve
Philip Reeve's author photo in the first book of his Railhead trilogy
Born 28 February 1966 (age 58)
Brighton, England
Occupation Writer, illustrator, author
Language English language
Residence Dartmoor, Devon, England
Period 2001–present
Genre Science fiction
Notable works Mortal Engines Quartet
Larklight trilogy
Notable awards Guardian Prize
2006
Carnegie Medal
2008
Website
philipreeve.com
[edit on Wikidata]
Philip Reeve (born 28 February 1966) is a British author and illustrator of children's books, primarily known for the 2001 book Mortal Engines and its sequels (the 2001 to 2006 Mortal Engines Quartet). His 2007 novel, Here Lies Arthur, based on the legendary King Arthur, won the Carnegie Medal.
Biography
Born on 28 February 1966 in Brighton, Reeve studied illustration, first at Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology (CCAT – now Anglia Ruskin University), where he contributed a comic strip to the Student Union magazine, and later at Brighton Polytechnic (now the University of Brighton). Before becoming an illustrator he worked at a bookshop in Brighton for several years. During his student years and for a few years afterwards he wrote for and performed in comedy sketch shows with a variety of collaborators under various group names, among them The Charles Atlas Sisters. He lives on Dartmoor with his wife Sarah and their son Sam.
With Brian Mitchell, Reeve is the author of a 1998 dystopian comic musical, The Ministry of Biscuits.
"Stop! Think before you eat that biscuit! Is it in any way fancy? If so, then you are a criminal! In Post-War London, The Ministry of Biscuits casts its sinister shadow over every tea-time and elevenses in the land. Established to 'control biscuits, and to control the idea of biscuits', it prohibits decadent sweetmeats, such as the Gypsy Cream."[1]
This was performed at the Pavilion Theatre, Brighton, the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford,[1] and the 1999 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It underwent a revival in 2005 at the Sallis Benney, Brighton,[1] and began playing at Brighton's Lantern Theatre in November 2017.[2][3] It has also toured to various other locations throughout the United Kingdom.[4]
Reeve provided cartoons for books, including those in the Horrible Histories and Murderous Maths series. He wrote the Buster Bayliss series of books for young readers, which includes Night of the Living Veg, The Big Freeze, Day of the Hamster, and Custardfinger. He is the author and illustrator of a Dead Famous non-fiction book: Horatio Nelson and His Victory.
Reeve's first book for older readers was Mortal Engines, which won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize in age category 9–11 years and made the Whitbread Book Award shortlist. Mortal Engines is the first book in a series sometimes called the Mortal Engines Quartet (2001–2006), which includes Predator's Gold, Infernal Devices and A Darkling Plain.[5] The books feature two young adventurers, Tom Natsworthy and Hester Shaw, living in a lawless post-apocalyptic world inhabited by moving cities. For the fourth volume, Reeve won the once-in-a-lifetime 2006 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, judged by a panel of British children's writers.[6][7][8]
Reeve spent more than ten years on Mortal Engines, coming up with ideas in 1989 or 1990, leading to publication in 2001. He was working on it part-time between illustration jobs, but as he became sure he could complete such a project, he cut down his illustration work and devoted more time to writing.[9]
The 2007 novel Here Lies Arthur is an alternative version of the Arthurian legend. Reeve and Arthur won the annual Carnegie Medal from the British librarians, recognizing the year's best children's book published in the UK.[10]
The Larklight trilogy (2006–2008)[5] is steampunk set in outer space. The first book Larklight was being developed as a film by the Indian director Shekhar Kapur, but he is no longer involved. Reeve professes that when planning out a novel, "I see it as a film that I run in my head, and I just keep running alternative versions of it until I come up with a cut I like.[11] The future of the film is now in the hands of the Swedish director Tomas Alfredson.[12]
Reeve began a series of Mortal Engines prequels with Fever Crumb (Scholastic UK, 2009).[5] The first was one of eight finalists for the 2010 Carnegie Medal.[13] In March 2020 Reeve said he did not intend to finish or publish a fourth book in the Fever Crumb series, as too much time had passed, thereby forgoing the world of Mortal Engines.[14]
In 2013, Reeve had his first co-authored, highly illustrated book with British-American writer-illustrator Sarah McIntyre published by Oxford University Press: Oliver and the Seawigs. This went on to win the UKLA Award.[15] Their third book, Pugs of the Frozen North, won an Independent Bookshop Week children's book award.[16] The pair have a contract with the same publisher for a series of four more books, beginning with The Legend of Kevin.[17]
In 2018, Reeve praised the 2018 Mortal Engines film adaptation, saying the director, Christian Rivers, had "done a fantastic job – a huge, visually awesome action movie with perfect pace and a genuine emotional core.... There are many changes to the characters, world, and story, but it's still fundamentally the same thing."[18] In the Reevening in March 2020, he acknowledged the film's shortcomings, but thoughts of the filmmakers liking the books led him to welcome the US-New Zealand two-hour film co-production as the best "you could hope for [in your lifetime]". On November 18, 2020, upon asked whether Mortal Engines would be rebooted for the television screens, he responded that, while that would be nice, it seemed unlikely.[19][20]
Writing methods
Reeve claims not to be a methodical writer. He plans nothing at all, usually starting with an opening image, a closing image, and a few vague notions for the things that happen in between. This leads to thousands of words of rough draft material being abandoned – even entire novels, such as with Fever Crumb and Mortal Engines. However, he takes ideas from these abandoned drafts to build the final version. It usually takes him a year to move a novel from first idea to publication – six months actively writing it, the rest editing and thinking.[9][21]
Works
Young adult novels
Mortal Engines Universe
Mortal Engines Quartet,[5] called Hungry City Chronicles in the United States:
Mortal Engines (2001)
Predator's Gold (2003)
Infernal Devices (2005)
A Darkling Plain (2006)
Traction City (World Book Day, 2011), a novella, rewritten in "Traction City Blues" short story
The Traction Codex: An Historian's Guide to the Era of Predator Cities (2012), with Jeremy Levett, guide
Night Flights: A Mortal Engines Collection (2018), illustrated by Ian McQue, prequel, collection of 3 short stories:
"Frozen Heart", "Traction City Blues", "Teeth of the Sea"
The Illustrated World of Mortal Engines (2018), with Jeremy Levett, guide
Fever Crumb series, prequel:[5]
Fever Crumb (2009)
A Web of Air (2010)
Scrivener's Moon (2011)
Larklight trilogy
(illustrated by David Wyatt)
Larklight (2006)
Starcross (2007)
Mothstorm (2008)
Railhead series
Railhead (2015)
Black Light Express (2016)
Station Zero (2018)
Utterly Dark series
Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep (2021)
Utterly Dark and the Heart of the Wild (2022)
Utterly Dark and the Tides of Time (2023)
Stand-alones
Here Lies Arthur (2007)
No Such Thing As Dragons (2009)
Short stories
"Doctor Who: The Roots of Evil" (2013),[22] No. 4 from Doctor Who 50th Anniversary E-Shorts series
Children's short stories
"The Exeter Riddles" (2013)
Children's books
Buster Bayliss series:
Night of the Living Veg (2002)
The Big Freeze (2002)
Day of the Hamster (2002)
Custardfinger! (2003)
Goblins series (page decorations by Dave Semple)
Goblins (2012)
Goblins vs Dwarves (2013)
Goblin Quest (2014)
Reeve & McIntyre Production series, published in the US as A Not-So-Impossible Tale[23] (written together with, and illustrated by Sarah McIntyre):
Oliver and the Seawigs (2013), published in the US as Oliver and the Sea Monkeys[24]
Cakes in Space (2014)
Pugs of the Frozen North (2015)
Jinks & O'Hare Funfair Repair (2016), published in the US as Carnival in a Fix[25]
Pug-a-Doodle-Do! (2017), activity book
Roly-Poly Flying Pony series with co-author Sarah McIntyre:
The Legend of Kevin (2018)
Kevin's Great Escape (2019)
Kevin and the Biscuit Bandit (2020)
Kevin vs the Unicorns (2021)
Adventuremice series with co-author Sarah McIntyre:
Adventuremice: Otter Chaos (2023)
Adventuremice: Mermouse Mystery (2023)
Stand-alone:
The Angry Aztecs And The Incredible Incas: Two Books In One (2001), with Terry Deary, from Horrible Histories Collections series
Non-fiction
Horatio Nelson and His Victory (2003), history, from Dead Famous series
As illustrator
Awful Art (1997), by Michael Cox
Henry Spaloosh! (1997), by Chris d'Lacey
Murderous Maths series (from 1997), by Kjartan Poskitt
Isaac Newton and His Apple (1999), by Kjartan Poskitt
The Incredible Incas (2000), by Terry Deary
Pantsacadabra! (2006), by Kjartan Poskitt
Urgum the Axeman (2006), by Kjartan Poskitt
Borgon the Axeboy series (from 2014), by Kjartan Poskitt
Gawain and the Green Knight (2016), Oxford Reading Tree series, by the Pearl Poet, retold by Philip Reeve
Adaptation
Mortal Engines (2018), film directed by Christian Rivers, based on the novel Mortal Engines
Goblins (TBA), an upcoming Laika film directed by Mark Gustafson, Based on the novel Goblins
Interview with Philip Reeve
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Philip Reeve
Philip Reeve was born in Brighton, and worked in a bookshop for many years before breaking out and becoming an illustrator. His first book, Mortal Engines, was published to great critical acclaim in 2001. It won the Smarties Gold Award, the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award and the Blue Peter ‘Book I Couldn’t Put Down’ Award. Four sequels to Mortal Engines followed, the last of which, A Darkling Plain, won both the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Award. There has also been a trilogy of steam-powered Victorian space adventures and a novel set in Dark Age Britain called Here Lies Arthur which won the Carnegie Medal in 2008.
What comes first – plot, character or situation?
I usually start out with a particular image, like the mobile London in Mortal Engines or the girl in the lake with the sword in Here Lies Arthur, and then I start thinking about what sort of story it would fit into, and plot and characters slowly develop as I work.
When you start to write a book, do you know how it will end?
I usually have a vague idea of what the ending will be, but I never plan out how I’m going to get there; the fun part is finding out what happens along the way. And quite often the ending changes once I work out what the story is all about.
Do you base your characters on real people?
Not really. Sometimes I might take a particular aspect of someone’s character or appearance, or some element from a historical figure, but not very often, and even when I do I don’t think they’d be recognisable by the time they’ve been worked into the story.
What appealed to you about fantasy?
I loved fantasy when I was growing up, and later Science Fiction as well. Then I lost interest in it when I was older, and for a long time didn’t read that sort of book at all. For some reason, though, every time I tried to write a story it turned out to be fantasy or sci-fi. I like the freedom of being able to make up a whole world of your own, packed with as many strange little details as I can think of. The world of my Mortal Engines and Fever Crumb books is designed so that anything in real life that interests or amuses me can be fitted into it somehow, so I can talk about the real world through a kind of fantasy filter, as well as looting all my favourite bits of history for strange ideas and inventions.
At what stage in your writing process do you use a computer?
I usually scribble the first draft of the story down very quickly in pencil. Then I type it onto my computer, at which point I start changing it – and sometimes the changes are so extensive that it becomes a whole new book. I like editing; moving chapters around, cutting out whole characters and sub-plots, changing people’s names – so the computer is very useful for that.
Do you write to a particular timetable – a set number of hours every day?
I try to write something each day. I tend to start around 9.a.m. each morning, when my son has gone to school. Sometimes I work through till 5p.m., or sometimes I have something else to do, or I just want to go for a walk or do some drawing or something. But I can’t really claim to have a timetable, and I have no idea how many words I write each day – I never bother counting them until the book is finished.
Is there a particular place where you write?
I have a little office in the spare room at the back of my house, and that’s the most convenient place for me to work. I can write more or less anywhere though; trains, cafés, hotels, out in the garden.
Do you ever get writer’s block? What do you do about it?
I’ve never been in a position where I haven’t been able to think of anything to write. I’ve quite often abandoned books that weren’t working: some of them were more or less finished, and those ones lie around gathering dust until I smash them and use the good bits in some other story. If I get stuck on a story I’m writing I go for a good long walk on the hills around my house, and if I get really stuck I stop writing that story and do something different. Then when I get back to the ‘stuck’ one I may have some new ideas.
How important is illustration to you?
I haven’t done very much book illustration lately. It used to be very important to me because it was how I made my living for many years, but I was very much a cartoonist, so I’ve seldom had much to do with illustrating my own books. I enjoyed working with the illustrator David Wyatt on my Larklight books, and I’ve just started a project with the illustrator and comics writer Sarah McIntyre. It’s nice to collaborate with an illustrator because their drawings spark off new ideas and I end up writing things that I might never have thought of on my own.
How much does your editor change what you write?
I don’t think anyone has ever asked me to change a story. I rely on my editors to point out bits that don’t work, or could be made more clear. And, of course, to spot all the spelling mistakes. In recent years they’ve started changing the titles – my last three books have all had titles suggested by the publisher, which they thought were more likely to sell than the title I’d given them.
What do you think you would be if you weren’t an author?
I suppose I’d have to go back to illustration. There isn’t really anything else I can do!
What was your favourite book(s) when you were a child?
There were lots of different ones at different stages. I read a lot of books, so my favourites tended to change quite quickly. The Lord of the Rings topped the list for a few years.
What advice would you give to a budding author or illustrator?
If you like drawing or writing you need to draw or write every day, even if it’s only for ten minutes. It’s just like learning a musical instrument, or becoming good at a sport: you need to practise. But if you really want to write (or draw) then you probably do it every day already.
Reeve, Philip and McIntyre, Sarah
The Legend of Kevin
Oxford, 2018, pp160, 8.99 [pounds sterling] 978 0 19 276608 3
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No! It is Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre riding to yet another success on, Kevin, a chubby flying pony (with very small wings) who lives in the wild, wet hills of the Outermost West.
The plot of this tale is complex and unpredictable. Kevin is swept out of his nest in the west by a mighty storm, only coming to rest when he lands on a balcony attached to a block of flats. There he is found by Max who brings him inside to recover from the bumpy flight. Meanwhile, the storm causes a flood so bad that the lower flats are submerged and all sorts of weird sea creatures are swimming into town. How could a fat flying pony be of any help during this disaster? As you read on, be prepared for encounters with sea monkeys, mermaids, a shop manager and a mayor. Gasp at the antics of empire building guinea pigs, Neville and Beyonce. Sob at the plight of a head teacher in peril on the roof. Wonder at an entire subplot based on popular biscuits (what are your three favourites?).
The magical combination of Reeves and McIntyre is becoming legendary. The stories are always written and illustrated with immaculate style and humour. Many teachers and librarians will testify that classes of primary children have enjoyed both hearing previous books read aloud and reading them independently. I am sure the same will be true of The Legend of Kevin.
Prue Goodwin
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 The School Library Association
http://www.sla.org.uk/school-librarian.php
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Goodwin, Prue. "The Legend of Kevin." School Librarian, vol. 66, no. 4, winter 2018, p. 240. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A568840270/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=575b54a6. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
David Fickling Books has acquired a new fantasy novel by Philip Reeve, the author of the bestselling Mortal Engines series.
Utterly Dark, due for publication this autumn, is set in the early 1800s on the remote and magical island of Wildsea, said Reeve. Utterly's guardian is the Watcher, whose job is to keep watch for some even more remote and magical islands, which appear sometimes in the west. When the Watcher mysteriously drowns, Utterly has to take over the watch herself and gradually she learns of her connection with the strange powers that live in the deep ocean. The story also features witches, stone circles, trolls, shipwrecks, cake and a gigantic sea monster.
"The sea has always been an important symbol in my work, so it was inevitable I would write a whole novel about it one day," said Reeve. "The idea of setting a story on an imaginary island was inspired by a visit to the Islay Book Festival with Sarah McIntyre [Reeve's partner on books such as those in the Roly-Poly Flying Pony series], although Wildsea feels more like Deep England than the Hebrides, and the landscapes and coastline are based closely on places I know in Devon and Cornwall. There is a lot of folklore and legend in it, too.
"It's very much the sort of story I loved as a child. I think of all my books, it's the one I would have most wanted to read when I was nine or 10. And I think the Regency setting comes from memories of watching 'Poldark' with my parents on Sunday evenings in the 1970s ... I've written Magic Poldark, basically."
Philippa Milnes-Smith, Reeve's agent, submitted the manuscript exclusively to Liz Cross, publishing director at DFB, who was the first editor of the Mortal Engines books at Scholastic, and has worked on the author's Railhead trilogy and some of the Reeves and McIntyre titles at Oxford University Press.
Cross said: "Every one of Philip's books is so beautifully crafted, and he is one of those rare writers who can turn his hand to any type of book, seemingly effortlessly. He can cast a new, original slant that makes us see familiar things in a totally different light."
DFB will publish Utterly Dark as a lead title in October 2021, with a cover by iillustrator Paddy Donnelly, and the company is currently firming up the marketing and promotional plans.
Utterly Darkis currently being billed as a standalone but Reeve, who has sold 767,145 books for 5.2m [pounds sterling] through Nielsen BookScan (with Mortal Engines books reaching 3m [pounds sterling]), said he might write more books set in that world.
"I wrote the book assuming it would be a standalone, but I enjoyed writing about Utterly and her friends so much that I'm toying with the idea of a further adventure for them. Wildsea is part of a whole archipelago, so I might take Utterly to visit another of the islands and find out what's going on there."
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 The Stage Media Limited
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"David Fickling bags Reeve's latest fantasy novel." The Bookseller, no. 5918, 19 Feb. 2021, p. 13. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A652590791/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=e96f652e. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
Reeve, Philip
Otter Chaos: Adventuremice
Illustrated by Sarah McIntyre
David Fickling Books
2023, pp.128, [pounds sterling]6.99
9781788452670
Animals. Adventure. Goodness
This is the first of a series of stories about the adventures of Pedro, a mouse for whom staying safe at home was not enough. He sets off to join the Adventure Mice, guardians of the Mouse Islands. Pedro has to prove himself to join their ranks. He does so by leading the rescue of Mortlake, a giant Otter caught up in an abandoned fishing net who is being sucked into a whirlpool. Mortlake promises not to threaten the Mice Islands again.
Philip Reeves has created an enticing world where Ivy gives life to a toy seaplane, where mouselets race their dinghies, and scavenger mice raid the mainland for cheese and cake. Newly confident readers will be carried along by the pace and excitement of the narrative and drawn into the life of the Mouse Islands by Sarah McIntyre's bright and often dramatic illustrations. These are to be found on nearly every page: the whirlpool looks deep and dangerous, the map of the islands offers the prospect of further adventures, and a cross section of the Mousebase demands careful study.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 The School Library Association
http://www.sla.org.uk/school-librarian.php
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Mallett, David. "Reeve, Philip Otter Chaos: Adventuremice." School Librarian, vol. 71, no. 2, summer 2023, p. 59. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A766804629/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=22d51450. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
Philip, you have been based in Dartmoor for a long time. How has it influenced your writing?
PR I wanted to live on Dartmoor ever since I came here with my parents as a child, and became even more determined as a teenager-my favourite illustrators, Brian Froud and Alan Lee, live here, and the moors, with their granite tors and twisty trees and rows of standing stones, are the perfect landscape for fantasy. It feels like Middle-earth.
I moved here from Brighton in 1998. I never managed to get much writing done before that, so I'm sure the peace and quiet of Dartmoor helped. I go for a lot of walks on the hills and in the woods, and think about stories while I'm walking. The moor hasn't appeared explicitly in any of my books, but lots of place names have crept in-Natsworthy, for instance, or Aish. The map of Devon is covered with good names waiting to be attached to characters. Here Lies Arthur is partly set along the northern edge of the moor, while the island of Wildsea in my new Utterly Dark novels is definitely a bit Dartmoor-ish.
When I started working with Sarah, I think we had a bit of a town-mouse/country-mouse thing going on. She would come to visit me and my family here, and I would go to stay with her and her husband in the big city. Some of our stories sprang out of that contrast, like the Roly Poly Flying Pony books, whose hero, Kevin, moves between the Wild Wet Hills of the Outermost West and a tower block a lot like the one where Sarah used to live. She and [her husband] Stuart live just down the road now, so we'll have to see if that changes!
Sarah, you relocated to Devon this year. What prompted the move and have you found a literary community there?
SM I've loved travelling to Devon for a decade, ever since my husband Stuart and I met Philip at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. We struck up a friendship based around drawing trees and landscape, and after months of comparing drawings, Philip and his wife Sarah invited us out for a sketching holiday on beautiful Dartmoor. Stuart and I did alright in lockdown, but we were working back-to-back at our desks. And the police were quite militant about not letting us sit down in our local park to make a drawing or drink a flask of coffee. As soon as we were allowed to travel, we bolted out to the countryside. I've already taken a printmaking workshop run by an artist (Viv Styles) who lives down the road, and gone outdoor sketching with the local Society of Artists.
You are both patrons of The Bookery in Crediton. How did you become involved there?
SM Philip has been a patron for a while, and I joined the team quite recently. It's impossible to miss, because it's one of the best bookshops in the country. Last year I helped Dee Lalljee and Claire Lewis on the team with a rebranding of the shop and Cathy Holden organised amazing school visits for both of us and drummed up local business sponsorship so every child could own their own book. It hosted Philip for a well-attended community event featuring his Utterly Dark book, and I helped it run a competition for three winners to have a one-on-one professional critique and creativity session with me.
The first book in your new series, Adventuremice, is out next spring. What is it about, and what was the inspiration?
SM I planned to take an art sabbatical in Nepal, which Covid cancelled, so I had a rare free book slot to fill. Instead of taking on a book, I painted pictures of the toy ships I had collected over the years from Deptford market, and included little sailor mice in them. I didn't plan to mix the mice with publishing, but so many people kept asking if there would be books that I decided to ask Philip if he would come on board and turn them into a series with our editor, Liz Cross. We have aimed the series at slightly younger children than our other books.
What else can we expect from the Adventuremice? And what else are you working on?
SM While the first book is mostly above water, in the second book, the mice rescue a lost mermouse baby and go looking for its underwater kingdom. What else? I'm answering most of these questions because Philip is busy today shooting a small-budget Arthurian film on Dartmoor. Earlier I helped paint some knights' shields and made a little sculpture for props. It's medieval costumes, mossy woods and fog machines at the momentall rather exciting.
David Fickling Books will pubLish Adventuremice: Otter Chaos by Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre on 2nd March 2023, followed by Adventuremice: Mermouse Mystery on 1st June 2023.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 The Stage Media Limited
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Carpenter, Caroline. "Five questions for ... Philip Reeve & Sarah McIntyre Author & illustrator: South-west locals Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre talk to Caroline Carpenter about how the area has inspired their work, as well as their upcoming series for younger readers, Adventuremice." The Bookseller, no. 5993, 28 Oct. 2022, p. 12. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A724594747/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=1cfe205f. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
Reeve, Philip
Utterly Dark and the Tides of Time
David Fickling Books, 2023, pp288, [pounds sterling]7.99, 9781788452885
Fantasy. Time Travel. Friendship
This beautifully written middle grade tale sees master storyteller Philip Reeve work his magic once again. The beginning of the tale is set in times of long ago, where we meet Utterly, living on Wildsea island with her friends who she holds very dear. Utterly knows that her time on the island is up and as previously agreed, she must reluctantly return to her mother, who is the Queen of the seas, known as the Gorm. As Utterly disappears off into the Hidden Lands, she soon realises that she is being followed by someone or something from another time. Her friends from Wildsea try to find her to make a deal with the Gorm for Utterly's return to her new home, but they find more to contend with than the sea alone. A whirlwind adventure about nature, family, belonging and friendship; this is the last in the trilogy but is perfectly readable as a standalone.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 The School Library Association
http://www.sla.org.uk/school-librarian.php
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Cole, Charlotte. "Reeve, Philip Utterly Dark and the Tides of Time." School Librarian, vol. 71, no. 4, winter 2023, p. 55. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A775549524/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=93b6dd50. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.