Joe Craig

We are really thrilled to have got JOE CRAIG to come to our next Linton Children’s bookfest. Joe writes stories about a boy called Jimmy Coates which are aimed at children aged 8 and above.

The books are action thrillers of the same genre as the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz, but with a slight sci-fi twist and the series consists of:

Jimmy Coates: Killer (March 2005)
Jimmy Coates: Target (May 2006)
Jimmy Coates: Revenge (January 2007)
Jimmy Coates: Sabotage (October 2007)
Jimmy Coates: Survival (due April 2008)

Shortly after the UK publication, Craig's first book was released in the United States under the title Jimmy Coates: Assassin It was a finalist for the 2006 Manchester Book Award, and won the Bolton Children's Book Award 2006.

Joe contacted us in 2006 as he liked the sound of our small friendly bookfestival and has Cambridge connections, having studied philosophy at Emmanuel College and written for the Cambridge Footlights. Indeed, he named a character in his first book after nearby Saffron Walden.

However, since then Joe’s books have become increasingly admired. In May 2007 the third book in the Jimmy Coates series was included on the Government's 'Boys into Books' list of all the best books that boys will enjoy, according to the School Libraries Association, and you just have to check out the reviews on Amazon to see how popular they are. So, we feel extremely lucky that Joe, with all his other commitments, is still able and willing to come to Linton.

Joe does high-energy and highly interactive workshops on story-writing, and although we haven’t yet talked about what exactly he will be doing in Linton on Sunday 11th May it is sure to be fun. To get us all in the right creative mood we are also hoping to have spy – influenced activities running during the day………. but more on that later.

To find out about the books, and Joe please look at his website, http://www.joecraig.co.uk/, and for those of you who know about such things, you will find him on Facebook and Myspace.com too.