Alan Snow (born 1959 in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

) is an English author and illustrator of children's literature. He is best known for his best selling novel ''Here Be Monsters!'' (2005), which was adapted into a stop-animation film by

Laika Laika (russian: link=no, Лайка; – 3 November 1957) was a Soviet space dog who was one of the first animals in space and the first to orbit the Earth. A stray mongrel from the streets of Moscow, she flew aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecra ...

under the name ''

The Boxtrolls ''The Boxtrolls'' is a 2014 American stop-motion animated fantasy comedy film directed by Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi (in their feature directorial debuts) loosely based on the 2005 novel '' Here Be Monsters!'' by Alan Snow. It is produc ...

'', released in 2014. Snow grew up in the county of

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

and went on to study fashion design and illustration at the Salisbury College of Art. After college he worked in variety of different jobs before becoming primarily an author and illustrator of children's books. Since then he has illustrated over 160 books and worked on the art design of video games and animation movies as well. Moreover, he was involved in the design of children's science museum in Japan. In 2005 Snow published his novel '' Here Be Monsters!'', which he illustrated himself with over 500 drawings. The novel, which was also published in three separate volumes, is the first part of the ''Ratbridge Chronicles''. ''The Ratbridge Chronicles'' are a series of novels and stories playing in the fictitious Victorian city of Ratbridge, in the underground of which the boxtrolls live.

Selected works

*''Machines, cars, boats, and airplanes'' (1989) *''Big Book of Knowledge'' (1992) *''The Monster Book of ABC Sounds'' (1994) *''The Truth about Cats'' (1995) *''What Color Is It? What Shape Is It?'' (1995) *''Here be Monsters!'' (2005), part of the ''Ratbridge Chronicles'' *''Wacky Guide to Paper Fun'' (2007) *''How Dogs Really Work'' (2009) *''How Cats Really Work'' (2009) *''Worse Things Happen At Sea'' (2010), part of the ''Ratbridge Chronicles'' *''How Dinosaurs Really Work'' (2012) *''How Pirates Really Work'' (2013)

External links

''The Boxtrolls''
at Focus Features, contains a short biography of Alan Snow
''Boxtrolls author Alan Snow interview: seeing the world of the boxtrolls made solid by other artists is more than odd''
at theguardian.com
'Interview with Alan Snow, the author behind this autumn's biggest family film The Boxtrolls Interview with Alan Snow, the author behind this autumn's biggest family film The Boxtrolls''
at cineworld.co.uk *http://here-be-monsters.com - website about the ''Ratbridge Chronicles'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Snow, Alan 1959 births Living people 20th-century English novelists 21st-century English novelists 21st-century British novelists People from Kent