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James Riordan
Jim Riordan does a lot of things: university professor, footballer (Moscow Spartak), minor spy, storyteller, broadcaster and radical. His autobiography, COMRADE JIM, tells all. Sometimes he gets his different hats mixed up. Best of all he enjoys writing stories for young people: from picture books for toddlers (MY GRR-GREAT UNCLE TIGER) to novels, often about war which he still remembers vividly. He has won a few literary prizes – his first novel SWEET CLARINET won the National Association for Special Education Needs award in 1998 and was short-listed for the Whitbread Prize.
For most of his novels, he goes to the home of the story – whether Jamaica for REBEL CARGO, Stalingrad for THE SNIPER, and South Africa for his next novel MARATHON MAN – to see, hear, smell, taste and touch the places he is writing about.
Publications
BLOOD RUNNER
Samuel Gquibela’s parents and sister die in a bloody massacre. His brothers retaliate by joining the anti-Apartheid movement, with guns and terrorism as their weapons. But Sam decides to fight prejudice in his own way – as a runner. Against all odds – from a poor township childhood to the Bantu homelands, from work in a gold-mine to competing for gold – he focuses his mind, body and heart on the long, hard race to freedom…
THE SNIPER
2010 CARNEGIE AWARD LONG LISTED
Stalingrad 1942: Teenager Tanya Chernova is recruited as a teenage sniper to seek out and shoot German officers. At first, she finds it almost impossible to kill, but a shocking discovery soon changes that. Following capture and a daredevil escape Tanya leads a handpicked unit on a hazardous mission - to sieze the Commander in Chief of the invading army. THE SNIPER is based on true events.
UK: Frances Lincoln June 2009 50,000 words
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