Graham Gardner is the Librarian at Abingdon School (near Oxford, UK) and author of the novel '' Inventing Elliot''. He was born and brought up in the county of

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

, England, and is the second eldest of ten children. From 2009 to 2014 he was in charge of library services at

St Marylebone School St Marylebone C of E School is a secondary school for girls in Marylebone, London. It specialises in Performing Arts, Maths & Computing. In the sixth form, boys can also attend. On 1 September 2011 the school became a converter academy havin ...

in central London, which featured in the London ''Evening Standard''s " Get London Reading Campaign" and for which he co-wrote a history of the school.

''Inventing Elliot''

His

début novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to pu ...

'' Inventing Elliot'', about bullying and self-invention, was published in the UK by Orion Children's Books in 2003. In 2004, ''Inventing Elliot'' was published in the US by Dial, an imprint of

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Angus Book Award The Angus Book Award is a literary award for UK authors of teenage fiction. It is awarded by Angus Council in Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great B ...

and the

Branford Boase Award The Branford Boase Award is a British literary award presented annually to an outstanding children's or young-adult novel by a first-time writer; "the most promising book for seven year-olds and upwards by a first time novelist." The award is sha ...

, and won the

Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis The (German Youth Literature Award) is an annual award established in 1956 by the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth to recognise outstanding works of children's and young adult literature. It is Germany's only ...

(German Youth Literature Prize) .

Academic research

For more than ten years, Graham Gardner was an academic researcher, based at Aberystwyth University on the coast of

West Wales West Wales ( cy, Gorllewin Cymru) is not clearly defined as a particular region of Wales. Some definitions of West Wales include only Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire, which historically comprised the Welsh principality of ''Deheub ...

, from where gained his PhD in 2003. During this time, he worked with Dr Bill Edwards and Dr Michael Woods on a study of civic participation in market towns funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, a review of community and town councils in Wales commissioned by the Welsh Assembly Government, several studies of the economy and society of rural Wales for the Wales Rural Observatory, and a review of the Quality Parish and Town Council Scheme commissioned by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. As an extension of this work, he subsequently advised the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) on the appropriateness and likely impact of giving parish and town councils in England a new general power to promote wellbeing. Between 2006 and 2009, he was a research fellow funded by the UK Research Councils (RCUK) studying citizenship, governance and local politics, with a focus on forging links between academic research, national public policy and local practice. His main concern in this role was with the significance of citizen empowerment for democracy, wellbeing and social justice, and his attempts to challenge mainstream thinking on the impact and potential implications of New Labour's 'new localism' agenda frequently caused controversy. His writing on local empowerment appeared in national newspapers and magazines, including the Guardian, Local Council Review, MJ and Clearway, and he regularly addressed policy and practitioner audiences. In recognition of his contribution to debates over empowerment and localism, he has been profiled by Regeneration and Renewal magazine and made a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts (FRSA).'The mouse that roared', http://www.planningresource.co.uk/inDepth/ByDiscipline/Community-Renewal/663101/mouse-roared---Dr-Graham-Gardner-geographer-novelist/,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gardner, Graham 21st-century English novelists Living people Academics of Aberystwyth University Alumni of Aberystwyth University British writers of young adult literature Year of birth missing (living people)