Piers Torday

Piers began his career in theatre and then television as a producer and writer. His bestselling first book for children, I, was shortlisted for the Waterstone's Children’s Book Award and nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal as well as numerous other awards. His second book, The Dark Wild, won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. The third book in the trilogy, The Wild Beyond, was published in 2015 to critical acclaim. His latest book for children, There May Be A Castle, was published in 2016 and was a Times Children’s Book of the Year.

The son of the late Paul Torday (author of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen) Piers recently completed his father’s final unfinished novel, The Death of an Owl (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, April 2016).

In regular demand as a speaker at schools and festivals, Piers is also a reading helper with Beanstalk, a former judge on the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, and a trustee of the Pleasance Theatre. He has recently been chosen to serve as the judge for the 2017 Costa Children's Book Award. Born in Northumberland, he now lives in London with his husband and a very naughty puppy.

Piers will be in schools to give an animated, interactive insight into how he became an author, what inspires him and the importance ofsharing stories. He will reveal how he learned to write books through The Last Wild, the very personal story which led to There May Be a Castle and why he wrote his latest book, The Lost Magician.