Richard Platt (born 15 April 1953) 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, ...

writer of nonfiction and information books and multimedia works, primarily for children. Platt was born in

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

, England. He started writing when aged 27 with how-to articles and books about photography. By 1992 he had begun writing non-fiction books for children, initially collaborating with

Stephen Biesty Stephen Biesty (born 27 January 1961) is a British illustrator. Biesty is considered a master of cross section. He frequently collaborates with Richard Platt, who writes the text for the majority of his books, which have covered a wide range of ...

in a successful series that capitalized on the illustrator's facility for cross-sectional drawings. Since then, Richard Platt has gone on to complete some 100 books for UK publishers

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, Kingfisher,

Dorling Kindersley Dorling Kindersley Limited (branded as DK) is a British multinational publishing company specialising in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 63 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a subsidiary of German media co ...

and

Walker Books Walker Books is a British publisher of children's books, founded in 1978 by Sebastian Walker, Amelia Edwards, and Wendy Boase. In 1991, the success of Walker Books' ''Where's Wally?'' series enabled the company to expand into the American ma ...

(

Candlewick Press Candlewick Press, established in 1992 and located in Somerville, Massachusetts, is part of the Walker Books group. The logo depicting a bear carrying a candle is based on Walker Books's original logo. Sebastian Walker launched Walker Books from ...

in the U.S.). Most have been for children and young people, though he also writes books for adults on maritime themes, especially smuggling.

Diary series

One of Platt's famous books is '' Pirate Diary: The Journal of Jake Carpenter'', illustrated by

Chris Riddell Chris Riddell ( ) (born 13 April 1962) is a South African-born British illustrator and occasional writer of children's books and a political cartoonist for the ''Observer''. He has won three Kate Greenaway Medals - the British librarians' ann ...

(Walker, 2001), a 64-page first-person journal. He won the annual

Blue Peter Book Award The Blue Peter Book Awards were a set of literary awards for children's books conferred by the BBC television programme '' Blue Peter''. They were inaugurated in 2000 for books published in 1999. The Awards have been managed by reading charity, ...

in category Best Book with Facts and Riddell won the annual

Kate Greenaway Medal The Kate Greenaway Medal is a British literary award that annually recognises "distinguished illustration in a book for children". It is conferred upon the illustrator by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) ...

for children's book illustration, the first "information book" to win since 1975.(Greenaway Winner 2005)
Living Archive: Celebrating the Carnegie and Greenaway Winners.

CILIP The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, since 2017 branded CILIP: The library and information association (pronounced ), is a professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge managers in the ...

. Retrieved 2012-07-15.Press Desk
(directory). CILIP. Retrieved 2012-07-15.
Quote: "media releases relating to the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Children's Book Awards in date order." 2002 to 2006 releases concern 2001 to 2005 awards. Platt, Riddell, and Walker had inaugurated the Diary series in 1999 with ''Castle Diary: The Journal of Tobias Burgess, Page'', which Platt calls it "my first attempt at fiction". Riddell's work was highly commended for the Greenaway Medal and it was a commercial success. Walker markets the 2011 matching set as "nonfiction"."Pirate Diary"
Walker Books. Retrieved 2012-07-08. ''Pirate Diary'' is the story of an apprentice sailor impressed by pirates to serve as cabin boy. He sees the good, the bad and the ugly, which educates the reader on historical issues of piracy. That is consistent with most of Platt's books, except for the first-person fictionalisation. Platt continued the series of 64-page first-person journals with Walker and illustrator

David Parkins David Alan Parkins (born 2 November 1955) is a British cartoonist and illustrator who has worked for D.C. Thomson, publisher of ''The Beano'' and ''The Dandy''. Now based in Canada, he illustrates children's picture books. Parkins was born in ...

. After ''Egyptian Diary: The Journal of Nakht'' (2005) and ''Roman Diary: The Journal of Iliona of Mytilini, who was captured and sold as a slave in Rome, AD 107'' (2009), he calls ''Roman Diary'' the "fourth and final book in the Diary series". Each ''Diary'' was published in a U.S. hardcover edition by Candlewick Press within the calendar year."Platt, Richard"
Library of Congress Authorities. Retrieved 2012-07-15.
Select "LC Online Catalog", then the primary listing.

References

External links

*
Richard Platt
at publisher

{{DEFAULTSORT:Platt, Richard 1953 births British children's writers Children's non-fiction writers Living people

Diary series

See also

References

External links