Nick Arnold (born 4 August 1964) is a British writer of science books for children. He is best known for the long series '' Horrible Science'', illustrated by Tony De Saulles, and the short series ''Wild Lives'', illustrated by Jane Cope. His other works include some published under the name Robert Roland. Arnold was born in

Cambridge, England Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge became ...

. His first published works appeared as a result of a project he was working on at the

University of North London The University of North London (UNL) was a university in London, England, formed from the Polytechnic of North London (PNL) in 1992 when that institution was granted university status. PNL, in turn, had been formed by the amalgamation of the No ...

, when he was trying to teach young children. A positive review was written about him and he started to write the ''Horrible Science'' books. Arnold left school with many history qualifications but decided to become a writer. He found it hard to get published however. He became an editor in London hoping that "working as an editor might help him get his own books published". In London, he struggled to find work, eventually taking a job editing science books. Nick began to write articles with a friend named Vip Patel. Some of these ended up in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' newspaper. Eventually he was out of work and decided to write books so wrote to every publisher in Britain requesting work. Scholastic pitched to him the concept of a series named " Horrible Science" and Arnold soon wrote ''Ugly Bugs''. An illustrator for Scholastic named Tony De Saulles was hired as the illustrator for the series. This book was released alongside ''Blood, Bones and Body Bits'', and the high sales solidified the series. In 1998, he broke his arm whilst performing a ''Horrible Science'' show. He finished the show and signed books before being rushed to the hospital. In 2004, Arnold became the first British author to tour China. He and Tony De Saulles filmed a TV show there and promoted the Chinese edition of the ''Horrible Science'' series. In 2006, Arnold founded the Appledore Book Festival after leading a campaign to save the

Appledore Appledore may refer to: Places England * Appledore, Kent ** Appledore (Kent) railway station * Appledore, Mid Devon, near Tiverton * Appledore, Torridge, North Devon, near Bideford U.S.A. * Appledore Island, off the coast of Maine In fiction * App ...

village library from closure. Two years later, Arnold achieved publicity for his claim to have located the site of the

Battle of Cynuit The Battle of Cynwit, was a battle between West Saxons and Vikings in 878 at a fort which Asser calls ''Cynwit''. The location of the battle is not known for sure but probably was at Countisbury Hill, near Countisbury, Devon. Prelude The Vikin ...

, fought between Saxons and Danes in 878.

References

External links

* *
Robert Roland
at LC Authorities (no records; se
Roland at WorldCat
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arnold, Nick Children's non-fiction writers British science writers British male writers Living people 1964 births

See also

References

External links