Andy Mulligan was brought up in South London. He worked as a theatre director for ten years before travels in Asia prompted him to retrain as a teacher. He has taught English and drama in India, Brazil, Vietnam, the Philippines and the UK. He now lives in England, and is writing full time. The Ribblestrop trilogy is now complete: Ribblestrop, Forever! Brings closure to the series. 'Return to Ribblestrop' won the coveted Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2011.
Trash is a very different animal. Hailed by the Times as 'outstanding ...exceptionally satisfying', Trash is first and foremost a thriller. It tells the story of three dumpsite boys and an astonishing discovery they make amongst the city's refuse. Smart enough to know they have something truly special - truly life-changing - they try to stay one step ahead of a vengeful police force out to silence them. The novel shifts rapidly from the squalid slums of a third-world city, to its prisons and graveyards.
David Ficklingpublished Trash in the Autumn of 2010 in the UK and the USA and the book is now published in twenty-five languages across the globe. The novel was shortlisted for the 2012 Carnegie medal, and film rights were snapped up soon after UK publication. Filming has just finished in Rio de Janeiro. Stephen Daldry directed Martin Sheen and Rooney Mara, plus a host of Brazilian stars. The film will premiere next year, as editing gets underway in London this autumn.
'The Boy With Two Heads' is out now, and the Daily Mail has called it 'an extraordinary examination of grief'.
Part comedy, part horror-story, it's another exploration of children under intolerable pressure. Meanwhile, a Radio 4 drama team has de-camped to the Philippines to make Andy's three-part child-kidnap thriller – to be broadcast in February 2014. And what's on the slate beyond that? The next book for David Fickling is underway, as a boy plunges backwards in time to World War One.
