Alan Gibbons

Alan Gibbons is an English author of children's books and a Blue Peter Book Award. He lives in Liverpool, England, where he used to teach in a primary school. His father was a farm laborer, but was hurt in an accident when Alan was eight years old. The family had to move to Crewe, Cheshire. He began to write for his pupils as a teacher, but never tried to get any of his work published.

Gibbons trained to be a teacher in his mid-thirties and starting writing short stories for his students. Later, he began to write professionally. In 2000, he won the Blue Peter Book Award in the category "The Book I Couldn't Put Down" category for Shadow of the Minotaur. He was a judge for the 2001 Blue Peter Book Awards. He was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal twice in 2001 and 2003 and shortlisted twice for the Booktrust Teenage Prize. He has also won the Leicester Book of the Year, the Stockport Book Award, the Angus Book Award, the Catalyst Award, the Birmingham Chills Award, the Salford Young Adult Book Award, the Hackney Short Novel Prize, the Our Best Book Award and the Salford Librarians' Special Award.

In addition to being a full-time writer, he is an educational consultant and speaks at schools across the UK and abroad, including visits to Switzerland, Norway, France, Spain, Cyprus, Brazil, China, Africa, Brunei and the Middle East. On a trip to Malawi he participated in a scheme to deliver 9,000 books to schools through the Char Char Trust and visited the Ndi Moyo clinic. On his blog www.alangibbons.net he asked people to take out banker's orders to support these charities and their work for local people. He has been a regular speaker at the Edinburgh and London Book Festivals, the Northern Children's Book Festival, Hay on Wye and Children's Books Ireland. His work is published in nineteen languages and he visits many schools internationally.

He has appeared on BBC TV, Channel 4, Radio 4, and Radio 5 live and has written in the Times Educational Supplement, Junior Education, Carousel, Books For Keeps and other publications.

He organised the Authors Against the SATs Campaign.

He is organiser of the Campaign for the Book and organized a successful 200 strong conference in Birmingham to launch it. In December 2010 he organised an 1100 signature Open Letter on library closures signed by many well-known figures in the arts, literature, media and publishing such as Philip Pullman, Kate Mosse, Kathy Lette, Francis Wheen, Joan Bakewell, Lee Child, Sarah Waters, Carol Ann Duffy, Michael Holroyd, Michael Rosen, Jackie Kay, Terry Jones, and many more. He initiated countrywide Read Ins on February 5th, 2011 to protest against library closures. Some 110 events took place across the country, involving up to 10,000 people. The events drew national and international media coverage. He also joined with the National Union of Teachers, Just Read and the National Literacy Association to organise a Reading for Pleasure conference in February, 2011. Michael Rosen, Bernard Ashley and Malorie Blackman were keynote speakers. He is a contributor to the Arts Council/UK Literacy Association Writers in Schools initiative. In March 2011 he launched a new initiative, calling for a National Libraries Day to celebrate reading for pleasure, public libraries, school libraries and School Library Services. This rapidly won the backing of many organisations for an annual event on the first Saturday in February. The sponsoring organisations include: The Booksellers Association, Unison, National Union of Teachers, Voices for the Library, Society of Authors, UK Literacy Association, Royal Society of Literature, The Federation of Children's Book Groups, The Bookseller, CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals), CILIP School Libraries Group, The Reading Agency, Booktrust, Campaign for the Book, East Anglian Writers, Children’s Writers and Illustrators in South London. In May, 2011 Alan Gibbons initiated a campaign to establish a National Libraries Day.