SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: Ravencave
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.marcussedgwick.com/
CITY: Sussex
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY: British
LAST VOLUME: SATA 393
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born April 8, 1968, in Kent, England; died November 15, 2022, in France; divorced; children: Alice.
EDUCATION:Graduated from Bath University.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Worked as a bookseller for Heffers (children’s bookshop), Cambridge, England; Ragged Bears (children’s book publisher), Somerset, England, former sales manager; Templar Publishing, Dorking, England, former editor; writer, beginning 1994; Walker Books, London, England, sales manager until 2009. Stone carver and wood engraver; performer, as drummer Basil Exposition, with International Band of Mystery (“Austin Powers” tribute band and acting troupe). Writer in residence at Bath Spa University, 2009-12; creative writing instructor at Arvon Foundation, London, England, and Ty Newydd Creative Writing Center, Llanystumdwy, Cricieth, Gwynedd, Wales; judge for various writing competitions.
AWARDS:Branford Boase Award, 2000, for Floodland; Edgar Award nomination, Mystery Writers of America, Independent Reading Association award nomination, and Portsmouth Book Award nomination, all 2001, all for Witch Hill; Carnegie Medal shortlist, London Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize shortlist, and Blue Peter Book Award shortlist, all 2002, all for The Dark Horse; Sheffield Book Award shortlist, Guardian Book Award nomination, and Edgar Award shortlist, all 2003, all for The Book of Dead Days; Booktrust Teenage Book Prize, 2006, for My Swordhand Is Singing; Booktrust Teenage Prize shortlist, Salford Book Award shortlist, Angus Book Award shortlist, Best Book for Young Adults designation, American Library Association (ALA), Portsmouth Book Award, North East Teenage Book Award, and Notable Trade Books for Young People selection, National Council for the Social Studies/Children’s Book Council, all 2007, all for The Foreshadowing; Costa Children’s Book Award shortlist, 2007, for Blood Red, Snow White; Carnegie Medal shortlist, 2010, and ALA Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book selection, 2011, both for Revolver; Guardian Fiction Prize shortlist, 2010, and Carnegie Medal shortlist, 2011, both for White Crow; Blue Peter Most Fun Story with Pictures Prize, 2011, for Lunatics and Luck; Michael L. Printz Award, 2014, for Midwinterblood; Carnegie Medal shortlist, Costa Book Awards shortlist, and UKLA Book Awards shortlist, all 2014, and Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book selection, 2016, all for The Ghosts of Heaven; Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award nomination, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020; Carnegie Medal shortlist, 2018, for Saint Death.
WRITINGS
Work represented in anthologies, including The Restless Dead: Ten Original Stories of the Supernatural, edited by Deborah Noyes, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 2007. Contributor of book reviews to London Guardian.
SIDELIGHTS
Since his debut young-adult novel Floodland was published in 2000, British writer Marcus Sedgwick produced a steady stream of novels, been recognized by honors such as the United Kingdom’s prestigious Carnegie Medal, and earned a large and loyal readership. Sedgwick’s stories range in focus from an Earth decimated by global warming to a magician who has promised his soul to a demon to a young Nordic girl with magical powers and a teen left alone to battle a psychopath in the remote Arctic. He also showed his versatility by revealing a lighter side in his writing for younger children, and his illustrations have brought to life several anthologies of popular myths and folk tales.
Although Sedgwick was best known for his darkly themed fantasy novels for young adults, he admited to a happy childhood. Born in Kent, England, in 1968, he was heavily influenced by his father, who loved reading and used books as gifts and rewards. “I was a perfectly normal and happy child,” the author recalled on his website. “Honestly. But I slunk into teenagehood dressed in black, with strange hair-sprayed effects on top. A wonderful world of pretentious but potent dark music was revealed: in short, I became a goth. I know it’s not clever now.” While his outward aspect has changed, Sedgwick still taps the world view of teens moved by melancholy music and fascinated by vampires, graveyards, and other dark fantasy themes. His sixteen-year career in the publishing industry also aided his growth as an author.
Sedgwick studied politics at Bath University and then took a series of jobs that included teaching and working in the children’s department of a bookstore. From there he moved to a sales position at London-based publisher Walker Books, beginning his writing career in the early 1990s. When Floodland appeared and earned him a Branford-Boase Award for best first children’s novel of 2000, Sedgwick’s success as a children’s author was firmly established. (open new1)After being diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome in 2014, he moved to the French Alps and later Dordogne. He died in France in late 2022 after finishing the nonfiction book, All In Your Head: What Happens When Your Doctor Doesn’t Believe You?.(close new1)
Floodland tells the story of Zoe, who lives alone on an island that was part of England before global warming caused the sea level to rise. In the hope of finding her family, Zoe leaves her home and sails to the Island of Eels, where a struggle is being waged over the limited food and supplies available there. “Most readers will enjoy this survival story for its heart-pounding plot and dystopic setting,” commented Ellen Fader in a review of Floodland for School Library Journal. In Horn Book, Joanna Rudge Long wrote that Sedgwick’s debut “is sufficiently taut, accessible, and swift moving to make it an effective cautionary tale.” Lynne T. Burke termed Floodland a “nail-biter” in her review in Reading Today, and Barry Schwartz praised the “gripping ending” in his Book Report review.
Sedgwick’s The Dark Horse borrows its tone from Norse myth. Sigurd’s clan is threatened by a group of raiders known only as the Dark Horse. His adopted sister Mouse, who was raised by animals when she was very young and can still communicate with them, seems to be connected to the Dark Horse in some strange way. Sigurd and Mouse now embark on a quest to locate a mysterious box that only one person can open. They find the box near a stranger who at first seems helpful but later proves to be more dangerous than either of them suspected. Coop Renner, reviewing The Dark Horse in School Library Journal, commented: “Making no concessions to moralizing or romanticizing, Sedgwick’s tale is rich, involving, and vivifying.” According to Horn Book reviewer Joanna Rudge Long, “the bleak setting” here is “fully realized … and the events are gripping.”
Sedgwick visits themes of magic and its dangers in the companion novels The Book of Dead Days and The Dark Flight Down, in which Valerian the magician and his servant Boy seek a way to undo Valerian’s misguided pact with a demon. Set in a crumbling European city during the eighteenth century, The Book of Dead Days finds Boy teaming up with an orphaned girl named Willow to follow Valerian through the city. Although they do not understand the man’s motivation, they realize that, if they do not help him, he will die and leave them without an adult to care for them. The three eventually begin a search for a mysterious book that may help the ill-fated Valerian find a way to avoid his fate.
Writing in Horn Book, Long commented of The Book of Dead Days that Sedgwick’s “dark thriller reaches a satisfactory denouement” that leaves readers waiting for answers in the sequel. “Readers who enjoy fast-paced melodrama with an overlay of the supernatural will devour this tale and wait eagerly for the next installment,” predicted Bruce Anne Shook in a review in School Library Journal. A contributor to Kirkus Reviews dubbed Sedgwick’s The Book of Dead Days a “fascinatingly brooding tale,” and Ilene Cooper noted in Booklist that “this is a haunting novel, and the possibility of more is definitely enticing.”
As Sedgwick revisits his characters in The Dark Flight Down, Valerian has died and Boy is now the prisoner of Emperor Frederick, a man who lusts for immortality. Frederick and Boy both believe that the key to eternal life may be found in one of Valerian’s books on magic; the question is, who will find it first? Cooper, writing again in Booklist, asserted that “Sedgwick’s writing is gloriously textured, and the plot is intricate, even heart-stopping,” while Horn Book reviewer Long judged The Dark Flight Down to be “as satisfyingly atmospheric as the first volume.”
My Swordhand Is Singing takes readers to the forests of eastern Europe. The time is the seventeenth century and Tomas and son Peter make their living cutting wood for the villagers of Chust. With winter coming, people begin to die and, as Peter soon discovers, the deceased then rise as undead and kill others to expand their zombie ranks. Now it is up to Peter and a Gypsy youth named Sofia to confront the undead with a magical sword from his father’s past, and their adventures continue in The Kiss of Death.
Kliatt reviewer Paula Rohrlick described My Swordhand Is Singing as “creepy and full of dark atmosphere,” while a Kirkus Reviews writer termed it an “effective gothic horror with a mystical touch.” “Sedgwick knows his way around a gothic setting, and readers will likely devour this bone-chiller,” predicted a Publishers Weekly writer, while in School Library Journal D. Maria LaRocco dubbed My Swordhand Is Singing “an outstanding tale of suspense and horror with detail enough to produce shivers.”
More gothic chills are served up in The Kiss of Death. Set again in the seventeenth century, Sedgwick’s novel follows Marko as he travels to Venice to find his missing father, a doctor. In the city, he meets Sorrel, whose father was treated by Marko’s father in hopes that his madness could be cured. Hopeful that the physician will be willing to continue his cure, Sorrel teams up with Marko on the search, but their quest is hampered by the Shadow Queen and her vampire attendants. “Sedgwick is … tremendous at that worst form of horror, when a trusted person turns out to have gone over to the dark side,” wrote Mary Hoffman in her London Guardian review of The Kiss of Death. According to London Times critic Amanda Craig, “What makes Sedgwick such an interesting author is not just his imagination, which has a consistently unpredictable and original cast to it … but his voice.”
In White Crow Sedgwick explores the concept of life after death through a story spanning two centuries and three interwoven narrations. Contemporary teen Rebecca describes her move with her father to the tiny seaside village of Winterfold, where she meets a Ferelith, an enigmatic goth girl who enjoys participating in rebellious and dangerous activities. A second narrative is culled from the journals of a priest who lived in the village in 1798 and details his investigations—done with a local doctor—into the afterlife. These plotlines eventually converge in a novel that is, as Booklist reviewer Daniel Kraus noted, “genuinely scary.” A Publishers Weekly reviewer also had praise for White Crow, noting that “Sedgwick keeps readers guessing to the very end.” Likewise, a Kirkus Reviews contributor termed the novel “wickedly macabre and absolutely terrifying” while School Librarian reviewer Rachel Bowler recommended the “modern gothic thriller” as “an engrossing read from start to finish.”
Sedgwick mines the recent past when creating the settings of both The Foreshadowing and Revolver. Set during World War I, The Foreshadowing finds Alexandra “Sasha” Fox haunted by terrifying visions after her older brother is sent off to fight in France. Sasha is no stranger to strange imaginings—she once foresaw, in vivid detail, the death of a friend—but these new visions are troubling because she has already lost one brother in the war. Joining a nursing corps, the teen heads to France in the hope that she can stop the death that her latest vision has foretold.
“Readers will be haunted by the unusually powerful, visceral view of war’s horrors,” wrote Gillian Engberg in a Booklist review of The Foreshadowing. Praise also came from a Kirkus Reviews contributor who termed Sedgwick’s “brilliant,” and Kliatt writer Claire Rosser wrote that the author “keeps this story going relentlessly, with short chapters, haunting images, a courageous heroine, and questions about honor and patriotism that continue to resonate.” A Publishers Weekly reviewer characterized The Foreshadowing as a “powerful and haunting WWI story [that] probes ideas of death and healing, fate and free will.”
Also set during the second decade of the 1900s, Revolver takes readers to a small cabin in the cold, dark lands north of the Arctic Circle where Sig Anderson watches over his father’s frozen corpse while his stepmother and sister leave home to seek help. A knock on the door announces Gunther Wolff, the large and violent man suspected of killing Sig’s real mother. Gunther now demands the gold that he claims Sig’s father Einar stole from him. The man’s threats sound serious and Sig is certain that the only way to protect his family is with his father’s old Colt pistol. However, to use the gun will mean going against his mother’s pacifist teachings.
Reviewing Revolver, Hoffman noted in the London Guardian that “the issue of whether violence is ever unavoidable is both topical and difficult, and this deceptively simple story raises enormous questions.” In Horn Book Dean Schneider the novel Revolver a “memorable tale, one that will appeal to fans of Gary Paulsen, Jack London, and even Cormac McCarthy.” Sedgwick’s “carefully crafted story” gains from “taut plotting and the crystalline atmospherics of its isolated setting,” asserted Booklist critic Ian Chipman, while a Kirkus Reviews contributor predicted that this “chilling, atmospheric story … will haunt readers with its descriptions of a desolate terrain and Sig’s difficult decisions.”
Sedgwick taps the vogue for vampires in his novel Midwinterblood, which is composed of seven related stories, among them “The Hunter’s Moon,” “Dark Age,” and “The Viking.” His saga begins in 2073 and scrolls backward through time as three characters—a journalist named Eric, a young woman named Merle, and a powerful priest of a primitive religion—connect in surprising ways on a strange island where the inhabitants can never die. Noting that Sedgwick “never fails to deliver up an atmosphere of veiled dread,” Anthony McGowan added in the Guardian that “Midwinter contains much that is riveting, strange and darkly enchanting.” In School Librarian, Rosamund Charlish recommended the novel to readers keen on a mystery “with ritual sacrifice, a vampire and plenty of blood.” Sedgwick continues his fantasy saga in Magic and Mayhem and Diamonds and Doom.
The “she” of Sedwick’s young-adult novel She Is Not Invisible is Laureth Peak, a blind sixteen-year-old who lives in England. Although Laureth’s writer father is supposed to be in Switzerland researching a book, he is not answering his phone calls and his research materials seem to have found their way to New York City. Aided by her sighted seven-year-old brother Benjamin, who can help her negotiate hotels, and subways, the teen travels to New York City, determined to find her father’s notebook and news of the man’s whereabouts. Worries that he has become the victim of something sinister mount as she pursues the mystery and danger envelopes her, regarded as “invisible” by many of the people she encounters. “Perhaps the book’s biggest accomplishment is a formal strategy so brilliant you may not even notice it,” observed S.F. Said in the London Guardian online. Sedgwick’s “narration includes not one single visual detail” and “everything is evoked by senses other than sight. Sedgwick deploys them so vividly that voices, smells and temperatures become as significant as appearance would otherwise be.”
Reviewing She Is Not Invisible, Shelley Diaz predicted in School Library Journal that Sedgwick’s prose “will have readers feeling a creepy sensation on the backs of their necks long after the last page.” Commending the novel’s teen heroine, Horn Book critic Martha V. Parravano added that “readers will applaud Laureth’s believable evolution into a more confident—and definitely more visible—young woman,” and Sarah Hunter wrote in Booklist that “this fast-paced thriller delivers a compelling mystery, thought-provoking questions about existence, and brilliantly lifelike characters.” Laureth’s “first-person narration allows readers to experience the intrigue through her abilities,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews writer, the critic concluding that in She Is Not Invisible “Sedgwick has crafted yet another gripping tale of wonder.”
Named a Michael L. Printz Honor Book by the American Library Association, Sedgwick’s The Ghosts of Heaven contains four stories split into four sections, and these separate parts designed to be read in any order. Although setting and time vary greatly and themes range from prehistoric drama to hijinks aboard a starship traveling in deep space, the uniting element is the image of a spiral. In the London Guardian, Josh Lacey dubbed The Ghosts of Heaven “an ambitious, intriguing and frustrating book,” the critic opining that while “all these spirals hold out the promise of profundity and significance” and “all the tales are enjoyable, clever and nicely written, … they never become greater than the sum of their parts.” For London Telegraph contributor Martin Chilton, “the four stories” comprising Sedgwick’s literary experiment “are engrossing and fluently written,” making The Ghosts of Heaven “a triumph.”
Sedgwick employs the graphic-novel format in Dark Satanic Mills, a story coauthored with his brother, Julian Sedgwick, and illustrated by John Higgins and Marc Olivent. The book’s title is drawn from a phrase culled from nineteenth-century English poet William Blake’s “Jerusalem.” In a bleak near-future, politicians and scientists fail to address the environmental catastrophes plaguing the world and the resulting vacuum is filled by the dictatorial “True Church.” In this urban dystopian landscape, teenager Christy works as a motorcycle courier and is now attempting to deliver a package. While taking a shortcut through the dimly lit streets of a decaying London, Christy rescues a man from a street gang, only to be framed for a murder she did not commit. Together with the man she has rescued, the teen embarks on a quest to learn the truth about a rumored “miracle” in the North. Isobel Powell, writing in School Librarian, admired Dark Satanic Mills, calling it a “dark and thrilling story” as well as “a thought-provoking narrative” enriched by both “biblical references” and literary quotes by Blake and late eighteenth-century Spanish painter Francisco Goya.
Sedgwick turns to younger readers in his “Raven Mysteries” chapter-book series, which includes Flood and Fang, Ghosts and Gadgets, Lunatics and Luck, Vampires and Volts, and Magic and Mayhem. Illustrated by Pete Williamson, these humorous gothic stories are targeted to children aged eight and older. Sedgwick’s narrator here is the irascible raven Edgar, guardian of the Otherhand family and a resident of the family seat, Castle Otherhand. At the heart of the series is the missing fortune of a quirky family and, as Kathryn Tyson noted in her School Librarian appraisal of Vampires and Volts, while “weird households have been done before, … the verve of the telling and the originality of the detail make this [series] stand out.”
Although they are lighter in tone than his novels, Sedgwick’s stories for younger readers still involve magical occurrences. A Winter’s Tale (published in the United States as A Christmas Wish ) focuses on a boy who lives in a temperate climate and wishes for snow on Christmas Day so that his home will look like the one in his snow globe. During the night his wish is granted: snow surrounds his home and the nearby lake is sufficiently frozen to allow the boy to skate. Characters such as gingerbread men, polar bears, dancers, living snowmen, and a snow wizard—presumably the one responsible for the magic—now appear, filling the snowy wonderland. “The reader must decide if [the story] is happening outdoors, in the snow globe, or in the boy’s imagination,” commented a contributor to Kirkus Reviews, and Booklist critic Karin Snelson suggested that any reader who had ever been transfixed by the magic of a snowglobe “may be transported by this visual winter fantasy.”
In a retelling “true to the spirit of the original,” according to Carolyn Phelan in Booklist, Sedgwick introduces a classic Hans Christian Andersen story to new readers in The Emperor’s New Clothes. This version of the traditional tale uses rhymed couplets to relate how two swindling tailors—depicted as weasels—convince an emperor to order a garment made from a length of magical cloth that can only be seen by the worthy. The emperor—a regal lion in Allison Jay’s accompanying illustrations—does not wish to seem unworthy and so commissions a robe made from the supposedly magical cloth. His advisors (a tortoise and a hare) take turns admiring the monarch when he shows off his new coat made of this amazing textile, and it is up to until a small frog child to finally point out the obvious fact: the cloth is only air and the leonine emperor is naked. Maria B. Salvadore called Sedgwick’s version “a fresh look and sound for an old tale,” and a reviewer in Publishers Weekly praised The Emperor’s New Clothes as a “buoyant collaboration” between Sedgwick and illustrator Jay.
In addition to his work as a writer, Sedgwick travels to schools and literary festivals to give workshops on writing. Describing his wishes for his readers, he stated on his website that “I hope they finish one of my books having been entertained, and maybe moved. I hope that they might remember them for a while, and I hope that they might look at something a bit differently.”
In his nonfiction book titled Snow, Sedgwick focuses on a various aspects of snow, from what science has uncovered about snow to snow in art and literature. The book contains six chapters, like the six sides of a snowflake. Sedgwick writes about dealing with snow on the home front, discusses how the Inuit have fifty words for snow, and how science has shown that snow is much more complicated than most people think. “Sedgwick is … a deft writer with a warm and confiding tone,” wrote Kathleen Jamie in the New Statesman, adding: “He wears his learning lightly and is very good at conjuring atmosphere.”
With Blood Red Snow White, Sedgwick presents a historical novel based on Arthur Ransome, who was a British writer noted for writing the Swallows and children’s books about the adventures during the school holidays. Luann Toth, writing in School Library Journal, noted that the story “is told in three distinct styles, each of which reflects an aspect of Ransome’s career.” The first part of the novel is a fairy tale that takes place in 1913 in St. Petersburg and tells the story of young writer named who leaves his family in England to collect Russian fairy tales. The narrative then changes to focus on the Russian Revolution and the subsequent civil war, reported by Ransome to the British press. The final narrative shift focuses on Ransome recounting how he gets out and then back into Russia to escape with his love, Evgenia, who is Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky’s secretary. “This dazzling novel based on true events should be the next historical fiction young readers reach for,” wrote Annie Metcalf in BookPage. Writing for Horn Book, Deirdre F. Baker remarked: “Elegiac and impressionistic, this stylized account evokes a historical moment … [and] celebrates the complicated past of a classic children’s author.”
Saint Death is set in the Mexican slum of Anapra, which sits on the border with the United States. Arturo finds himself trying to win 10,000 dollars at cards for his friend, Faustino. It turns out that Faustino stole the money from a drug lord in order to get his girlfriend and baby smuggled into the United States. Arturo is a skilled card player but is surprised when he enters a game only to find that another player is the very criminal his friend stole the money from. “Interwoven within the story itself are textual fragments, political and economic facts and elements of folklore,” wrote Agnes Guyon in School Librarian, adding: “These provide a powerful context to the story.” Writing for Horn Book, Sarah Hannah Gomez commented: “Saint Death presents a compelling interior story of resilience, poverty, loyalty, and the value of life.”
In his historical novel titled Mister Memory, Sedgwick sets the tale in 1899 Paris. Arrested for killing his wife, Marcel Despres is sent off to an insane asylum where he demonstrates that he has a perfect memory about every single detail in his life back to when he was in the womb, intriguing one of the doctors. Meanwhile, a detective assigned to the murder case believes there is a deeper mystery involved. The novel is “marvelously imagined and sure to appeal to readers who enjoy an intelligent thriller,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor. Noting that Mister Memory is not merely a murder mystery, School Library Journal contributor April Sanders went on to note that the novel also provides an exploration of “memory: how it changes, how it imprisons, and how it eventually brings answers.”
In the graphic novel Scarlett Hart: Monster Hunter, illustrated by Thomas Taylor, Sedgwick tells the story of the orphaned daughter of two accomplished monster hunters. Scarlett wants to follow in her deceased parents’ footsteps and does so with the help of the family butler, Napoleon. Nevertheless, because she is under age, Scarlett must keep her monster hunting a secret from the Royal Academy for the Pursuit and Eradication of Zoological Eccentricities. In addition, there is a rival hunter named Count Stankovic who has a grudge against Scarlett and eventually informs on her to the academy. “Monster hunt after monster hunt keeps the story whizzing along nicely, with plot developments and revelations sprinkled throughout in a rollicking manner,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor. Sarah Hunter, writing in Booklist, noted that Scarlett Hart features “grotesque creatures, murky atmosphere, long-buried secrets, and a tenacious tween with a nose for mystery.”
With the historical fantasy novel Voyages in the Underworld of Orpheus Black, Harry Black decides to be a conscientious objector to fighting in the war. His enlisted brother, Ellis, is killed when a pub he is in is bombed during the London Blitz. Also wounded, Harry digs through the rubble to find Ellis and is distraught by the sheer horror of the event. Harry’s journal entries detail his vision of the destruction of future wars. Harry also helps German teen refugee Agatha find her parents in the underworld beneath the city.
A Kirkus Reviews contributor found the book to be “atmospheric and provocative but hampered by a cacophony of messages.” Writing in Voice of Youth Advocates, Etienne Vallee suggested that “readers may have difficulty relating to the story.” However, Vallee conceded that “teens who enjoy bittersweet redemption will appreciate this book.”
In the novel Snowflake, AZ, eighteen-year-old Ash finds his missing stepbrother, Bly, in the Arizona town of Snowflake. There, he is shocked to find a mostly middle-aged community of sick people. Their conditions are widely dismissed by doctors. In order to survive, they have developed a system of selfcare that alleviates the suffering from urban living in this age of pre-apocalypse.
A contributor to Publishers Weekly remarked that “this raw, deeply philosophical tale leaves readers with a timely, sobering message.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor pointed out that the characters’ “relationships are deep yet fraught; their suffering and humor equally sincere.” The same Kirkus Reviews critic called Snowflake, AZ “an ominous, relevant, and uniquely compelling read.”
(open new2)In Wrath, Cassie can hear things nobody else can. Fitz and her father think she is crazy. When Cassie disappears, Fitz believes she may have gone to the edge of the Earth to get away from all the noises she hears. He chases after her to support her. Writing in School Librarian, Jane Rew “highly recommended” the story.
With Ravencave, James and his family are in Swardale to spread the ashes of his grandmother. His Dad has lost his job, and his mother has writer’s block. His younger brother, Robbie, doesn’t talk much. While climbing the peak to spread the ashes, James follows a girl he recognizes and learns more about his family’s background allowing him to help them with the problems that burden them. In a review in School Librarian, Dawn Woods noted that this story brings “the reader into an unexpected pathway of suspense.”(close new2)
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, October 1, 2001, John Peters, review of Witch Hill, p. 320; September 15, 2003, Karin Snelson, review of A Christmas Wish, p. 248; September 1, 2004, Ilene Cooper, review of The Book of Dead Days, p. 123; October 1, 2004, Carolyn Phelan, review of The Book of Dead Days, p. 338; June 1, 2005, Ilene Cooper, review of The Dark Flight Down, p. 1792; April 1, 2006, Gillian Engberg, review of The Foreshadowing, p. 43; November 15, 2007, Ian Chipman, review of My Swordhand Is Singing, p. 37; May 1, 2010, Ian Chipman, review of Revolver; May 1, 2011, Daniel Kraus, review of White Crow; February 1, 2014, Sarah Hunter, review of She Is Not Invisible, p. 56; August, 2016, Sarah Hunter, review of Blood Red Snow White, p. 63; December 1, 2016, Michael Cart, review of Mister Memory, p. 30; March 1, 2017, Julia Smith, review of Saint Death, p. 67; February 15, 2018, Sarah Hunter, review of Scarlett Hart: Monster Hunter, p. 42.
BookPage, January 1, 2015, Jill Ratzan, review of The Ghosts of Heaven, p. 28; November, 2016, Annie Metcalf, review of Blood Red Snow White, p. 43; May, 2017, Norah Piehl, review of Saint Death, p. 27.
Book Report, November 1, 2001, Barry Schwartz, review of Floodland, p. 66.
Guardian (London, England), October 11, 2008, Mary Hoffman, review of The Kiss of Death, p. 14; July 16, 2010, Michelle Pauli, author interview; January 3, 2015, Josh Lacey, review of The Ghosts of Heaven.
Horn Book, March 1, 2001, Joanna Rudge Long, review of Floodland, p. 213; March 1, 2003, Joanna Rudge Long, review of The Dark Horse, p. 217; November 1, 2004, Joanna Rudge Long, review of The Book of Dead Days, p. 718; November 1, 2008, Joanna Rudge Long, review of The Dark Flight Down, p. 725; May 1, 2006, Claire E. Gross, review of The Foreshadowing, p. 330; March 1, 2010, Dean Schneider, review of Revolver; July 1, 2011, Katie Bircher, review of White Crow; May 1, 2014, Martha V. Parravano, review of She Is Not Invisible, p. 98; January 1, 2015, Deirdre F. Baker, review of The Ghosts of Heaven, p. 87; September-October, 2016, Deirdre F. Baker, review of Blood Red Snow White, p. 118; July-August, 2017, Sarah Hannah Gomez, review of Sasint Death, p. 142.
Internet Bookwatch, April 1, 2018, review of Scarlett Hart.
Kirkus Reviews, November 1, 2003, review of A Christmas Wish, p. 1320; September 1, 2004, review of The Emperor’s New Clothes, p. 874; October 1, 2004, review of The Book of Dead Days, p. 968; March 15, 2010, review of Revolver; February 15, 2014, review of She Is Not Invisible; December 1, 2014, review of A Love like Blood; November 15, 2014, review of The Ghosts of Heaven; January 1, 2017, review of Mister Memory; February 15, 2017, review of Saint Death; March 1, 2018, review of Scarlett Hart; June 1, 2019, review of Voyages in the Underworld of Orpheus Black; July 15, 2019, review of Snowflake, AZ.
Kliatt, May 1, 2006, Claire Rosser, review of The Foreshadowing, p. 14; September 1, 2007, Paula Rohrlick, review of My Swordhand Is Singing, p. 18.
Library Journal, February 15, 2017, Elisabeth Clark, review of Mister Memory, p. 83.
New Statesman, December 16, 2016, Kathleen Jamie, review of Snow, p. 92.
Publishers Weekly, January 29, 2001, review of Floodland, p. 90; September 22, 2003, review of A Christmas Wish, p. 71; September 6, 2004, review of The Emperor’s New Clothes, p. 61; November 12, 2007, review of My Swordhand Is Singing, p. 57; March 15, 2010, review of Revolver; May 9, 2011, review of White Crow. December 22, 2014, review of A Love like Blood, p. 55; August 8, 2016, review of Blood Red Snow White, p. 69; January 9, 2017, review of Mister Memory, p. 42; March 5, 2018, review of Scarlett Hart, p. 75; November 27, 2019, review of Snowflake, AZ, p. 74.
School Librarian, September 22, 2010, Rachel Bowler, review of White Crow; June 22, 2010, D. Telford, review of Lunatics and Luck; December 22, 2011, Rosamund Charlish, review of Midwinterblood; June 22, 2011, Kathryn Tyson, review of Vampires and Volts; March 22, 2014, Isobel Powell, review of Dark Satanic Mills, p. 58, and Wendy Worley, review of She Is Not Invisible, p. 58; March 22, 2015, Lesley Martin, review of The Ghosts of Heaven, p. 58; December 22, 2016, Agnes Guyon, review of Saint Death, p. 248; March 22, 2022, Jane Rew, review of Wrath, p. 63; June 22, 2023, Dawn Woods, review of Ravencave, p. 60.
School Library Journal, March 1, 2001, Ellen Fader, review of Floodland, p. 256; September 1, 2001, Janet Hilburn, review of Witch Hill, p. 232; March 1, 2003, Coop Renner, review of The Dark Horse, p. 237; October 1, 2003, Susan Patron, review of A Christmas Wish, p. 67; October 1, 2004, Maria B. Salvadore, review of The Emperor’s New Clothes, p. 129; November 1, 2004, Bruce Anne Shook, review of The Book of Dead Days, p. 154; February 1, 2006, Walter Minkel, review of The Dark Flight Down, p. 136; August 1, 2011, Heather M. Campbell, review of White Crow; December 1, 2014, Jane Henriksen Baird, review of The Ghosts of Heaven, p. 143; September, 2016, Luann Toth, review of Blood Red Snow White, p. 163; July, 2017, April Sanders, review of Mister Memory, p. 97; February, 2018, Alec Chunn, review of Scarlett Hart, p. 88.
Spectator, December 10, 2016, Paul Keegan, review of Snow, p. 75.
Tehran Times (Tehran, Iran), May 21, 2023, “Marcus Sedgwick’s Novel Blood Red, Snow White Published in Persian.”
Telegraph (London, England), September 8, 2014, Martin Chilton, review of The Ghosts of Heaven.
Times (London, England), July 21, 2007, Nicolette Jones, review of Blood Red, Snow White, p. 49; August 23, 2008, Amanda Craig, review of The Kiss of Death, p. 15.
Voice of Youth Advocates, February 1, 2015, Elisabeth W. Rauch, review of The Ghosts of Heaven, p. 65; August, 2016, Erin Segreto, review of Blood Red Snow White, p. 68; June 1, 2019, Etienne Vallee, review of Voyages in the Underworld of Orpheus Black, p. 66.
ONLINE
Bookish, https://www.bookish.com/ (May 4, 2017), Kelly Gallucci, “Marcus Sedgwick on Borders, Ageless Characters, and Saint Death.”
Booklist, http://blog.booklistonline.com/ (June 10, 2014), Daniel Kraus, interview with Sedgwick.
British Council website, https://literature.britishcouncil.org/ (November 22, 2022), author profile.
Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database, http://www.childrenslit.com/ (February 1, 2009), “Q&A with Marcus Sedgwick.”
Comicosity, http://www.comicosity.com/ (March 30, 2018), Aaron Long, “Interview: Sedgwick & Taylor Hunt Monsters with Scarlett Hart.”
English Association website, https://englishassociation.ac.uk/ (November 22, 2022), author interview.
Guardian (London, England), http://www.theguardian.com/ (December 13, 2013), S.F. Said, review of She Is Not Invisible.
Letterpress Project, https://www.letterpressproject.co.uk/ (February 3, 2022), author interview.
Marcus Sedgwick website, http://www.marcussedgwick.com (November 22, 2022).
Orion Books website, http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/ (February 1, 2009), Danuta Kean, interview with Sedgwick.
Publishers Weekly, https://www.publishersweekly.com/ (January 20, 2017), Lenny Picker, “Total Recall: PW Talks with Marcus Sedgwick.”
Reading Lists, https://www.thereadinglists.com/ (October 21, 2016), Phil Treagus, “Marcus Sedgwick: Living in the Story.”
OBITUARIES
Kirkus Reviews, November 17, 2022, “Author Marcus Sedgwick Dies at 54.”
Telegraph (London, England), November 21, 2022, “Marcus Sedgwick, Author Acclaimed for His Dark Fiction for Young Adults — Obituary.”
Marcus Sedgwick
UK flag (1968 - 2022)
Marcus Sedgwick was an award-winning author of over forty books for adults and young people. After careers in bookselling and the publishing industry, Sedgwick produced his first novel, Floodland, in 2000, winning the Branford Boase Award.
Awards: Printz (2014) see all
Genres: Children's Fiction, Young Adult Fantasy, Science Fiction, Historical Mystery
Series
Book of Dead Days
1. The Book of Dead Days (2003)
2. The Dark Flight Down (2004)
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Raven Mysteries
1. Flood and Fang (2009)
2. Ghosts and Gadgets (2009)
3. Lunatics and Luck (2010)
4. Vampires and Volts (2010)
5. Magic and Mayhem (2011)
6. Diamonds and Doom (2011)
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Cudweed
1. Cudweed's Birthday (2011)
2. Cudweed in Outer Space (2012)
3. Cudweed's Time Machine (2013)
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Raven Boy & Elf Girl
1. Fright Forest (2012)
2. Monster Mountains (2012)
3. Scream Sea (2013)
4. Dread Desert (2013)
5. Terror Town (2014)
6. Creepy Caves (2015)
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Novels
Floodland (2000)
Witch Hill (2001)
The Dark Horse (2002)
Cowards (2003)
A Christmas Wish (2003)
The Foreshadowing (2005)
My Swordhand Is Singing (2006)
Blood Red, Snow White (2007)
The Kiss of Death (2008)
Revolver (2009)
White Crow (2010)
Midwinterblood (2011)
She Is Not Invisible (2013)
Dark Satanic Mills (2013) (with Julian Sedgwick)
A Love Like Blood (2014)
The Ghosts of Heaven (2014)
Killing the Dead (2015)
Mister Memory (2016)
Saint Death (2016)
The Monsters We Deserve (2018)
Voyages in the Underworld of Orpheus Black (2019) (with Julian Sedgwick)
Snowflake, AZ (2019)
Dark Peak (2021)
Wrath (2022)
Ravencave (2023)
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Series contributed to
Doctor Who 50th Anniversary E-Shorts
3. The Spear of Destiny (2013)
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Doctor Who
12 Doctors 12 Stories (2014) (with others)
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Picture Books hide
The Emperor's New Clothes (2004)
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Graphic Novels hide
Scarlett Hart: Monster Hunter (2018)
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Non fiction
Sorry, we're not listing non fiction by this author
Omnibus editions hide
The Dead Days Omnibus (2006)
The Swordhand Omnibus (2011)
Marcus Sedgwick
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Marcus Sedwick
Born 8 April 1968
Preston, Kent, England
Died 15 November 2022 (aged 54)
France
Education University of Bath
Genre Fantasy, science fiction, horror, young adult
Notable awards Michael L. Printz Award
2014 Midwinterblood
Booktrust Teenage Prize
2007 My Swordhand Is Singing
Branford Boase Award
2001 Floodland
Marcus Sedgwick (8 April 1968 – 15 November 2022) was a British writer and illustrator. He authored several young adult and children's books and picture books, a work of nonfiction and several novels for adults, and illustrated a collection of myths and a book of folk tales for adults.[1] According to School Library Journal his "most acclaimed titles" were those for young adults.[1]
His novel Floodland (2001) won the Branford Boase Award and The Dark Horse (2002) was shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. The first U.S. edition of his 2011 novel Midwinterblood won the 2014 Michael L. Printz Award from the American Library Association.[2]
Early life
Marcus Sedgwick was born 8 April 1968 in Preston, a small village in East Kent, England.[3] He has one brother, Julian, and a half-sister, Ellie.[3] As a child he was shy and recalled being bullied at Sir Roger Manwood's School in Sandwich, Kent an all-boys grammar school.[3]
His mother had once worked in Machynlleth at the Centre for Alternative Technology; the area was the setting for Susan Cooper's fantasy series The Dark Rising, and Sedgwick called those books influential for him.[3] He was also influenced by Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast series, which his father had introduced him to.[3]
He studied mathematics and politics at the University of Bath.[3] His father died when Sedgwick was twenty years old.[4][3]
Career
Before becoming a full-time author, Sedgwick worked as a bookseller at Heffers, a children's bookstore, and in sales at children's publishers Ragged Bears and Walker Books.[3] According to The Guardian he began writing "seriously" in 1994.[3]
His first book, Floodland, was published in 2000, and it received the Branford Boase Award for the best debut children's novel of that year.[3] Floodland tells the story of Zoe, who lives on her own on an island that used to be part of England before global warming caused the seas to rise. Publishers Weekly said that "Despite some page-turning chapters, Zoe and her story lack the credibility to sustain readers through the contradictory themes and sometimes unimaginative prose."[5] Alternative Magazine said it was "a stunning debut novel that precluded more literary brilliance to follow."[6]
Dark Horse (2001) was shortlisted for several awards.[3] My Swordhand Is Singing (2006) won a Booktrust Teenage Prize.[3]
In 2013 he released Dark Satanic Mills, a graphic novel written in conjunction with his brother Julian Sedgwick and illustrated by John Higgins.[3] His 2015 book The Ghosts of Heaven, a work of young adult fiction consisting of four loosely connected parts combined into an "intriguing" novel, according to Sarah McCarry writing for The New York Times.[7]
He won numerous awards for his writing, most notably the Michael L. Printz Award in 2011 for Revolver, 2014 for Midwinter Blood, and 2016 for The Ghosts of Heaven.[3] At the time of his death he was the most-nominated author for America's most prestigious book prize for writing for young adults. In addition to writing, Sedgwick worked on film and book projects with his brother Julian.[3] He was represented by RCW Literary Agency.[3]
Sedgwick taught creative writing at Bath Spa University as a writer in residence from 2011 through 2014 and wrote reviews for the Guardian newspaper.[3]
Reception
Kirkus Reviews, in reviewing his 2016 Saint Death, called out Sedgwick's "characteristic precision of English prose".[8] According to The Guardian, after the 2006 appearance of My Swordhand Is Singing, his works were "regularly on the shortlist for every major award for his subsequent titles", and although seldom receiving major awards were "always critically acclaimed, much admired by other writers and popular with readers".[3]
Awards
2001 Branford Boase Award – Floodland[3]
2001 Edgar Awards nomination – Witch Hill[9]
2007 North East Teenage Book Award – The Foreshadowing[10]
2007 Portsmouth Book Award – The Foreshadowing[10]
2007 Booktrust Teenage Prize – My Swordhand Is Singing[10]
2007 Renfrewshire Book Award – My Swordhand Is Singing[10]
2011 Blue Peter Book Award (Best Book with Pictures) – Lunatics and Luck[10]
2011 Michael L. Printz Award – Revolver
2013 Rotherham Book Awards (Lower Age Category) – Fright Forest[10]
2014 Michael L. Printz Award – Midwinterblood[3]
2015 Essex Book Award – She Is Not Invisible[10]
2015 Oxfordshire Book Award – She Is Not Invisible[10]
2015 Rib Valley Book Award – She Is Not Invisible[10]
2015 Spellbinding Book Award – She Is Not Invisible[10]
2016 Michael L. Printz Award – The Ghosts of Heaven
Personal life
Sedgwick was married and divorced three times.[3] He had a daughter, Alice, with his first wife Kate Agnew.[3]
In addition to drawing and writing, Sedgwick played the drums and was an avid music lover.[4] Some of his favorite writers include Susan Cooper, Thomas Mann and Arthur Schnitzler.[11]
In 2014, Sedgwick was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis.[1][3] After his diagnosis, he moved to the French Alps and then to Dordogne.[3] His final work before his death was the nonfiction book All In Your Head: What Happens When Your Doctor Doesn’t Believe You?[1] Sedgwick died in France on 15 November 2022, at the age of 54.[12][13][14]
Publications
Young adult novels
Floodland (Delacorte Press, 2000) ISBN 9780385328012
The Dark Horse (Wendy Lamb Books, 2001) ISBN 9780385730549
The Foreshadowing (Orion Children's Books, 2005) ISBN 9781842552179
Blood Red, Snow White (Orion Children's Books, 2007) ISBN 9781842551844
Revolver (Orion, 2009) ISBN 9781842551868
White Crow (Orion, 2010) ISBN 9781842551875[6]
Midwinterblood (Indigo, 2011) ISBN 9781780620091
She Is Not Invisible (Orion Children's Books, 2013) ISBN 9781444000504
The Ghosts of Heaven (Roaring Brook Press, 2015) ISBN 9781626721258
Killing the Dead (Indigo, 2015) ISBN 9781780622392
Saint Death (Orion Children's Books, 2016) ISBN 9781444000528[8]
Snowflake, AZ (Norton Young Readers, 2019) ISBN 9781324004417
Dark Peak (Oxford University Press, 2021) ISBN 9780198494973
Wrath (Barrington Stoke, 2022) ISBN 9781800900899
Dead Days
The Book of Dead Days (Orion, 2003) ISBN 9781842552179
The Dark Flight Down (Orion Children's Books, 2004) ISBN 9781842552186ã
Swordhand
My Swordhand Is Singing (Orion Children's Books, 2006) ISBN 9781842551837
The Kiss of Death (Orion Children's Books, 2008) ISBN 9781842551851
Children's books
Witch Hill (Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2001) ISBN 9780385328029
A Winter's Tale. Illustrated by Simon Bartram. (Templar, 2003) ISBN 9781840113075
Raven Mysteries
Food and Fang (Orion Children's Books, 2009) ISBN 9781842556924[15]
Ghosts and Gadgets (Orion Children's Books, 2009) ISBN 9781842556948[15]
Lunatics and Luck (Orion Children's Books, 2010) ISBN 9781842556955[15]
Vampires and Volts (Orion Children's Books, 2010) ISBN 9781842556962[15]
Magic and Mayhem (Orion Children's Books, 2011) ISBN 9781842556979[15]
Diamond and Doom (Orion Children's Books, 2011) ISBN 9781842556986
Cudweed
Cudweed's Birthday (Hachette Children's Group, 2011) ISBN 9781444003192
Cudweed in Outer Space (Hachette Children's Group, 2012) ISBN 9781444004830
Cudweed's Time Machine (Hachette Children's Group, 2013) ISBN 9781444004847[15]
Elf Girl and Raven Boy
Fright Forest (Orion Children's Books, 2012) ISBN 9781444004854 [15]
Monster Mountains (Hachette Children's Group, 2012) ISBN 9781444004861[15]
Scream Sea (Orion Children's Books, 2013) ISBN 9781444005257 [15]
Dread Desert (Hachette Children's Group, 2013) ISBN 9781444005264[15]
Terror Town (Hachette Children's Group, 2014) ISBN 9781444005271[15]
Creepy Caves (Orion Children's Books, 2015) ISBN 9781444005288[15]
Picture books
A Christmas Wish (Dutton, Penguin, 2003) ISBN 978-1437967616
The Emperor's New Clothes. Jay Alison, illustrator (Chronicle Books, 2004) ISBN 978-0811845694
Graphic novels
Dark Satanic Mills with Julian Sedgwick. Illustrated by Marc Olivent and John Higgins (Walker Books, 2013) ISBN 9781406329889
Scarlett Hart: Monster Hunter (First Second Books, 2018) ISBN 9781250159847
Voyages in the Underworld of Orpheus Black with Julian Sedgwick. (Walker Books, 2019) ISBN 9780385328029[15]
Adult novels
A Love Like Blood (Pegasus Books, 2015) ISBN 9781605986838
Mister Memory (Mulholland Books, 2016) ISBN 1444751980
The Monsters We Deserve (Zephyr, 2018) ISBN 9781788542302
Nonfiction
Cowards: The True Story of the Men Who Refused to Fight, London (Hodder Children's Books, 2003) ISBN 9780340860618
Snow. Illustrated by Marcus Sedgwick (Little Toller Books, 2016) ISBN 9781908213402
Be the Change – Be Calm: Rise Up and Don’t Let Anxiety Hold You Back (Summersdale, 2022) ISBN 9781800074125
All In Your Head: What Happens When Your Doctor Doesn’t Believe You? (Bennion Kearny Limited, 2022) ISBN 978-1910515983
Short stories and novellas
"bad language" in Thirteen (Orchard Books, 2005) ISBN 9781843628354
"The Heart of Another" in The Restless Dead: Ten Original Stories of the Supernatural. Deborah Noyes, editor. (Candlewick Press, 2007) ISBN 978-0763629069
"The Spear of Destiny" in Doctor Who: Eleven Doctors, Eleven Stories. (Puffin, 2013) ISBN 9780141348940
"Don't Call It Glory" in The Great War: Stories Inspired by Items from the First World War (Candlewick Press, 2015) ISBN 978-0763675547
"If Only in My Dreams" in I'll Be Home for Christmas (Stripes Publishing, 2016) ISBN 978-1847157720
"Together We Win". 10 Stories to Make a Difference. Daniel Ido, illustrator. (PopUp Projects, 2021) ISBN 9781838323578
As illustrator
Outremer: Jaufré Rudel and the Countess of Tripoli – A Legend of the Crusades. Nick Riddle, editor. (Fisher King, 1993) ISBN 9780952432708
Counsel, June. Once upon Our Time (Glyndley Books, 2000) ISBN 978-0953423224
Marcus Sedgwick is a widely admired, prizewinning author of over 40 books for adults and young adults, of novels for younger people, of non-fiction and academic essays. His books have been shortlisted for over thirty awards, including the Carnegie Medal (five times), the Edgar Allan Poe Award (twice) and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize (four times). He won the Branford Boase award for his debut novel, Floodland, and the Booktrust Teenage Prize for My Swordhand is Singing. His first novel for adults, A Love Like Blood, was published in 2014.
Marcus Sedgwick was born and raised in a small village in East Kent in the south-east of England. He now lives in the south of France.
Books in order of publication:
Floodland (2000)
The Dark Horse (2001)
Witch Hill (2001)
The Book of Dead Days (2003)
A Christmas Wish (2003)
Cowards (2003)
The Dark Flight Down (2004)
The Foreshadowing (2005)
My Swordhand is Singing (2006)
Blood Red, Snow White (2007)
The Kiss of Death (2008)
Revolver (2009)
Flood and Fang (2009)
Ghosts and Gadgets (2009)
White Crow (2010)
Vampires and Volts (2010)
Lunatics and Luck (2010)
The Truth Is Dead (2010)
Midwinterblood (2011)
Diamonds and Doom (2011)
Fright Forest (2012)
Monster Mountains (2012)
Scream Sea (2013)
She Is Not Invisible (2013)
Dark Satanic Mills (2013)
Dread Desert (2013)
The Ghosts of Heaven (2014)
A Love Like Blood (2014)
Creepy Caves (2015)
Killing the Dead (2015)
Saint Death (2016)
Mister Memory (2016)
The Monsters We Deserve (2018)
Scarlett Hart: Monster Hunter (2018)
Snowflake, AZ (2019)
Voyages in the Underworld of Orpheus Black (2019)
Dark Peak (2021)
Wrath (2022)
Be The Change: Be Calm (2022)
Be The Change: Be Kind (2022)
Ravencave (2023)
AGENT: CLAIRE WILSON
TEHRAN - "Blood Red Snow White", a novel by the British writer and illustrator Marcus Sedgwick, has been published in Persian by Peydayesh.
Arezu Ahami is the translator of the book originally published in 2007.
When writer Arthur Ransome leaves his unhappy marriage in England and moves to Russia to work as a journalist, he has little idea of the violent revolution about to erupt.
Unwittingly, he finds himself at its center, tapped by the British to report back on the Bolsheviks even as he becomes dangerously, romantically entangled with Trotsky's personal secretary.
Both sides seek to use Arthur to gather and relay information for their own purposes- and both grow to suspect him of being a double agent.
Arthur wants only to elope far from conflict with his beloved, but her Russian ties make leaving the country nearly impossible. And the more Arthur resists becoming a pawn, the more entrenched in the game he seems to become.
"Blood Red Snow White", a Soviet-era thriller by renowned author Marcus Sedgwick, is sure to keep readers on the edge of their seats.
A Persian translation of Sedgwick's novel "The Monsters We Deserve" by Farzin Suri has previously been published by Peydayesh.
Photo: Front cover of the Persian translation of Marcus Sedgwick's novel "Blood Red Snow White".
MMS/YAW
© 2022 TehranTimes. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. ( Syndigate.info ).
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 SyndiGate Media Inc.
http://www.syndigate.info/
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"Marcus Sedgwick's novel 'Blood Red Snow White' published in Persian." Tehran Times [Tehran, Iran], 21 May 2023, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A750094957/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=8efa8af0. Accessed 28 June 2024.
Sedgwick, Marcus
Ravencave
Barrington Stoke
2023, pp.136, [pounds sterling]7.99
9781800901926
Bereavement. Ghosts. Suspense
James, his elder brother Robbie, and their parents have come to Swardale one year after their previous visit, bringing the ashes of James' Grandma in order to scatter them close to her roots as was her wish.
The family are disjointed. Dad has recently been made redundant and is still angry about the way it was handled. Mum has writer's block so has lost her lucrative income and self-esteem, and Robbie is sullen and uncommunicative.
The weather has been bad, so it's only on the last day of their getaway do they climb the peak as they had done last year, this time with Grandma's ashes.
On the walk up, James is distracted by a young girl he recognises is from the past and she urges him to follow her. In doing so, James discovers more about himself and moves his family towards dealing with their demons. A Barrington Stoke adventure read taking the reader into an unexpected pathway of suspense and a reminder of the loss of such a talented author.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 The School Library Association
http://www.sla.org.uk/school-librarian.php
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Woods, Dawn. "Sedgwick, Marcus Ravencave." School Librarian, vol. 71, no. 2, summer 2023, p. 60. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A766804634/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=14d6ab26. Accessed 28 June 2024.
Marcus Sedgwick, whose books for children and young adults drew critical praise and a devoted following, died at 54, the Guardian reports. Sedgwick, a native of England, worked in bookselling and publishing before making his literary debut in 2000 with the children's novel Floodland. He followed that up the next year with The Dark Horse, which earned him a place on the shortlist for the Carnegie Medal, the prestigious British award for children's literature. He would go on to be named a finalist for the Carnegie Medal several times, for books including My Swordhand Is Singing, Revolver, White Crow, and Midwinterblood, which won the American Library Association's Michael L. Printz Award for books written for teenage readers. In a 2014 interview with BookPage, Sedgwick said he appreciated the "freedom" that writing for young readers afforded him. "In many ways younger readers are more open minded than older ones," he said. "More open to strange and wonderful ideas. If you're writing books and want to push boundaries a little bit, then that's a very good thing." Sedgwick was remembered by his admirers on social media. On Twitter, author David Almond wrote, "I'm so sad to hear of the death of Marcus Sedgwick. A gentle and helpful friend and a fearless writer." I'm so sad to hear of the death of Marcus Sedgwick. A gentle and helpful friend and a fearless writer. -- David Almond (@davidjalmond) November 17, 2022 And writer Sally Nicholls tweeted, "The death of Marcus Sedgwick is a great loss to children's fiction and YA. He was an innovative and unusual storyteller, who always treated his audience with huge respect." Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 Kirkus Media LLC
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/genres/fiction/
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Sedgwick, Marcus. "Author Marcus Sedgwick Dies at 54." Kirkus Feature Articles and Interviews, 17 Nov. 2022, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A726980341/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=ca6d4c91. Accessed 28 June 2024.
Byline: Telegraph Obituaries
Marcus Sedgwick, who has died unexpectedly aged 54, was a prolific prize-winning author of beautifully written and darkly gripping stories with an underlying moral core.
A gentle, funny man, bursting with original ideas, Sedgwick wrote mainly for older children and young adults, and his books were shortlisted for around 40 major awards.
He won the Branford Boase award, the first of several prizes, for his debut novel, Floodland (2000), a dystopian yarn of a Norfolk turned by global warming into an unfriendly ocean dotted with small islands. His gothic fantasy My Swordhand is Singing (2006), set in the snowy forests of 17th-century Romania and drawing on the vampire legends of eastern Europe, won the Booktrust Teenage Prize.
Sedgwick also became the most-nominated author for the Michael L Printz Award of the American Library Association, winning three times, for Revolver (2011), The Ghosts of Heaven (2015, a compilation of four stories) and Midwinterblood (2016).
Reviewing the second of these titles for The Daily Telegraph, Martin Chilton wrote: "What makes this book something special is that, as a whole, it is ... a beguiling and philosophical account of human longing and the unknown. A triumph."
Many of Sedgwick's books featured snowy landscapes, inspired by the winter snowscapes of his childhood in Kent. He spent many holidays in icy northern climes, and in Snow (2016), a book for adults featured as Book of the Week on Radio Four, he explored the science of snow and its place in our culture.
Marcus Sedgwick was born on April 8 1968 at Preston, a small village in east Kent, and as he recalled in a 2011 article in the Times, his first memory was of being wheeled in his pushchair through the village graveyard. Within a few years he was devouring gothic thrillers and books of mystery, magic and myth; a favourite was Susan Cooper's 1973 children's fantasy novel The Dark Is Rising: "More than anything else it was the imagery, the atmosphere of a sinister and snowy English winter, that grabbed me," he recalled.
Told it would be impossible to make a living as an author, he read Mathematics and Politics at university. Before proving his advisers wrong, he worked as a bookseller and for a children's book publisher.
He wrote more than 40 books, some of which he illustrated himself, some co-authored with his brother Julian. They include the Raven Mysteries series for children aged eight and above, charting the adventures of the Otherhand family of Castle Otherhand and their faithful guardian, Edgar the raven.
For many years Sedgwick lived in West Sussex where, in addition to writing, he played the drums in the Brighton-based band, Garrett. Later he moved to a chalet in the French Alps -- at "more or less the height of Mount Snowdon, though with more snow" -- partly in the hope of recovering from chronic fatigue syndrome, which he believed he had contracted on a trip to Asia in 2013.
In All In Your Head: What Happens When Your Doctor Doesn't Believe You?, published earlier this year, Sedgwick delivered a moving but wryly humorous account of his struggle to persuade the medical establishment that there was something physically wrong with him.
His final fantasy for children, Wrath, a novella published in March, returned to the themes that marked his debut Floodland, with a story of a girl who can hear the Earth in distress and goes missing. Earlier this month it featured in a Sunday Times list of Best Children's Books of 2022.
At the time of his death Sedgwick was living in the south of France.
He was separated from his second wife and is survived by a daughter.
Marcus Sedgwick, born April 8 1968, died November 15 2022
CAPTION(S):
Marcus Sedgwick in 2017
Sedgwick's debut novel, in which most of Norfolk is underwater thanks to climate change
Sedgwick won one of his three Michael L Printz Awards for Midwinterblood
The Swordhand omnibus contains My Swordhand is Singing and its sequel The Kiss of Death
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 Telegraph Group Ltd.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
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"Marcus Sedgwick, author acclaimed for his dark fiction for young adults -- obituary; The Telegraph critic described The Ghosts of Heaven as 'a beguiling and philosophical account of human longing and the unknown. A triumph'." Telegraph Online, 21 Nov. 2022, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A727389129/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=e31b0bce. Accessed 28 June 2024.
Sedgwick, Marcus Wrath
Barrington Stoke
2022, pp176, [pounds sterling]7.99
9781800900899
Climate Change. Adolescence. Friendship
Cassie is called crazy for hearing things. (Her environmentalist dad says it is Earth's distress call.) Even Fitz joins in the taunts-to his bitter regret-unable to find the words to tell her he's crazy for her.
When she disappears, Fitz fears the worst: he has lost the chance to say he believes in her, loves her even. If, as he suspects, she's gone to the ends of the earth to get away-from the noise, from everyone-then he must follow.
His dad is ready to help: he knows from experience that opportunities must be grasped before it's too late. And so, to Cape Wrath, Britain's most north-westerly point, they go. As we learn what 'wrath' can mean (not just anger, but turning point), perhaps we too shall believe in the possibility of change, and learn, with Cassie and her friends, to dance to a different tune. Three instances of bad language and the teenage romance element make it unsuited to primary school children. Highly recommendedi
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 The School Library Association
http://www.sla.org.uk/school-librarian.php
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Rew, Jane. "Sedgwick, Marcus Wrath." School Librarian, vol. 70, no. 1, spring 2022, p. 63. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A698621539/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=77d6fc77. Accessed 28 June 2024.