Piers Torday (born 1974) is a British children's writer. The son of the novelist

Paul Torday Paul Torday (; 1 August 1946 – 18 December 2013) was a British writer and the author of the comic novel ''Salmon Fishing in the Yemen''. The book was the winner of the 2007 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic writing and was serial ...

, he was born in

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

and was a theatre and television producer for many years.Piers Torday: finishing his father’s last novel
''The Guardian'', 7 May 2016.Piers Torday website
accessed 6 March 2018 His book ''The Dark Wild'' (2014) won the

Guardian Children's Fiction Prize The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize or Guardian Award was a literary award that annually recognised one fiction book written for Children's literature, children or young adults (at least age eight) and published in the United Kingdom. It was conf ...

for 2014. After Torday's father died, leaving an unfinished novel manuscript ''The Death of An Owl'', Torday completed the novel. Torday's adaptation of

John Masefield John Edward Masefield (; 1 June 1878 – 12 May 1967) was an English poet and writer. He was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate from 1930 until his death in 1967, during which time he lived at Burcot, Oxfordshire, near Abingdon ...

's ''

The Box of Delights ''The Box of Delights'' is a children's fantasy novel by John Masefield. It is a sequel to '' The Midnight Folk'', and was first published in 1935. It is also known as ''When The Wolves Were Running''. Plot Kay Harker is returning from boar ...

'' was performed at

Wilton's Music Hall Wilton's Music Hall is a Grade II* listed building in Shadwell, built as a music hall and now run as a multi-arts performance space in Graces Alley, off Cable Street in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is one of very few surviving music ...

Shadwell Shadwell is an area in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London, England. It also forms part of the city's East End of London, East End. Shadwell is on the north bank of the River Thames between Wapping (to the west) and Ratcliff and ...

in east London between 1 December 2017 and 6 January 2018, and revived at the same venue between 30 November 2018 and 5 January 2019. It was revived by the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and opens around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, Stratf ...

from 31 October 2023, running until 7 January 2023. He has visited schools and libraries across the UK such as Edward Peake Middle School.

Works

* ''The Lost Magician'', 2019 * ''The Frozen Sea'', 2019 * ''The Last Wild'', 2013 * ''The Dark Wild'', 2014 * ''The Wild Beyond'', 2015 * ''There May Be a Castle'', 2016 * ''The Wild Before'', 2021

References

1974 births Living people British children's writers Guardian Children's Fiction Prize winners {{UK-writer-stub