Emma Clayton is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

children's

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

and

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

dystopian A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...

thrillers, ''

The Roar ''The Roar'' is a 2008 post-apocalyptic novel for children by British author Emma Clayton. It was published by Chicken House Publishing. Plot When the animal plague began, the entire population came together and built a solid concrete wall 5 ...

'' and ''The Whisper''. ''The Roar'' was nominated for the Carnegie Medal 2009, won the Yorkshire Coast Book Award and was selected for the USBBY 2010 Outstanding International Books Honor List and the 2010 Texas Lone Star Reading List.

Life

The daughter of a

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

officer, Emma Clayton moved frequently as a child until her father's death when she was seven years old. In her late teens, she trained as a field

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

, spent a brief time working as a

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

, then returned to education in her mid-twenties, studying film and screenwriting. She wrote her first novel when she was 26, following the birth of her daughter, then wrote ''The Roar'' several years later while studying for a

Higher National Diploma Higher National Diploma (HND), part of the Higher Nationals suite of qualifications, is an academic higher education qualification in the United Kingdom and various other countries. They were first introduced in England and Wales in 1920 alongsi ...

in Visual Communications. Clayton's first book, a middle grade novel called ''The Roar'', was published by

Chicken House Poultry farming is the form of animal husbandry which raises domesticated birds such as chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese to produce meat or eggs for food. Poultry – mostly chickens – are farmed in great numbers. More than 60 billion chicke ...

in July 2008 in the United Kingdom and April 2009 in the United States. In February 2012, Chicken House published the sequel, ''The Whisper'', in both the United Kingdom and United States. Both ''Roar'' and ''Whisper'' follow separated twins Mika and Ellie, who use a government scheme to find one another on a walled planet full of lies.

Awards and honors

* USBBY Outstanding International Books Honor List, 2010 * Texas Library Association's Lone Star Reading List, 2010 * Yorkshire Coast Book Award, 2010

Published works

* ''

'' (Chicken House, 2008) * ''

The Whisper ''The Whisper'' is a post-apocalyptic novel for children by British author Emma Clayton. It was published in 2012 by Chicken House Publishing. It is a sequel to ''The Roar ''The Roar'' is a 2008 post-apocalyptic novel for children by ...

'' (Chicken House, 2012)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Clayton, Emma Living people British women novelists 21st-century British novelists British children's writers British women children's writers 21st-century British women writers Year of birth missing (living people)