Beyond the Book: Background information when reading The Cry of The Icemark

Beyond the Book

This article relates to The Cry of The Icemark

Stuart Hill was born in Leicester, in the East Midlands of England, where he still lives today. He has worked as a teacher and an archaeologist, and now balances life as both a bookseller and a writer.

When asked why he started writing he says, "I couldn't read or write until I was seven and I can still remember that almost magical feeling when those strange angular symbols actually began to have a meaning. I'm not exaggerating, I remember that the letters literally suddenly started to make sense, almost as though a switch and been thrown in my brain and the light of understanding flooded in! After that I couldn't stop playing with words and their sounds and meaning. From little rhymes and word-plays I graduated to writing my first stories."

The Cry of the Icemark is yet another successful book from the small but innovative UK publisher, Chicken House, who also publish Cornelia Funke (The Thief Lord etc.)  Last year they were bought by Scholastic and only time will tell whether, now they're part of a behemoth publishing group, they'll continue to seek out the new and interesting authors that other publishers overlook!

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This article relates to The Cry of The Icemark. It first ran in the June 15, 2006 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.