David Thorpe, writer David Thorpe, writer

With imagination we can save the world!

David is the winner of the 2006 HarperCollins/Saga Magazine contest to find a major new children's writer with his novel Hybrids, published in 2007. In March 2008 it also won the Lewisham Schools Book Award.

"Essential reading for the cyberspace generation."
"A stunningly clever novel." - The Times:

He is a novelist, comics writer, environmental book writer, journalist and editor. Read all about him on this site. Write to him using the links on the left.

What's new

• Sustainable Home Refurbishment: The Earthscan Expert Guide to Retrofitting Homes for Efficiency by David ThorpeDavid's new book has just come out - Sustainable Home Refurbishment: The Earthscan Expert Guide to Retrofitting Homes for Efficiency. Thanks to everyone who helped put it together!
" This is an excellent book - comprehensively-researched, powerfully-presented and crystal clear. It should be the first stop for anyone seeking objective advice in a field cluttered with misleading claims. I couldn't recommend it more strongly." - George Monbiot
A retro-fit offers many benefits: cutting electricity and heating bills, increasing the resale value of homes, slashing carbon emissions and creating a healthier place to live. This book is the guide to making it happen. [July '10]
• David will be on a panel at the Greener Homes & Building Show on June 4th to talk about sustainable refurbishment and his new non-fiction title on the subject which comes out in June.

• David's new novel We Can Improve On You has been accepted for publication by Troll Carnival, and imprint of Parthian Books. All being well it should appear in 2011. [May '10]
• cover of Captain Britain and The Siege of CamelotCaptain Britain and The Siege of Camelot is out, which contains David's work on Captain Britain and a new introduction written by myself - plus one by the writer of the Black Knight series, Steve Parkhouse, as well as the feature and art from the Captain Britain Summer Special and Inside Comics - A short history of Captain Britain by Alan Moore.

It contains the Captain Britain strips from Marvel Super Heroes Nos.377 - 389 and The Daredevils Nos. 1 - 11 chronicling the stories by myself, Alan Moore and Alan Davis. It costs £12 from Forbidden Planet. [Apr '10]
• David is working on a project called Animation Tank in primary schools. Classes end up writing a script and then animating it into a 3 minute film which is up for an award at the annual Pink Snowball Awards held every November in Machynlleth. His role is running sessions on: Why do we tell stories? What is a Story? Morals, themes and structure; Characters, and coming up with storylines. Animator Mikey Ford, of Aardman Productions, then works with the kids to animate the scripts.[Feb '10]
• David has been commissioned by the publisher Earthscan to write an Introduction to Solar Power in their Expert Guide series. [Feb '10]
Arrest Blair banner: the campaign offers a reward to people attempting a peaceful citizen’s arrest of the former British prime minister, Tony Blair, for crimes against peace. • David is working with George Monbiot managing the Arrest Blair website and Facebook group. This campaign offers a reward to people attempting a peaceful citizen’s arrest of the former British prime minister, Tony Blair, for crimes against peace. Anyone attempting an arrest which meets the rules laid down on the website will be entitled to one quarter of the money collected at the time of his or her application. [Jan '10]
David Thorpe's work is in this Captain Britain omnibus• David has a profile on the new website for school visits Author Hotline. And although it's behind schedule you can order the Captain Britain collection featuring his work from Marvel Comics, and while you're at it, the omnibus published last year [Jan '10]
• Some nice praise has arrived from George Monbiot and Penney Poyzer for David's new book. Read it on the right side of this new sustainability page on this website. [Jan '10]
• David has begun writing his next novel for older children called The Drowning. One of the grant conditions was the production of a blog to document the writing of the The Drowning. Now he has begun to write it this is a fine time to start. So here's a link to the first blog. [Dec '09]
• Blogs about climate change, the Copenhagen talks and Curitiba and an intro to a Marvel Comics Captain Britain anthology [Dec '09]
David Thorpe on MTV• Watch a clip from David's MTV interview when he was ambushed by interviewer Caza as David turned up to rap to students at the ESPM University Sao Paulo on November 18th. A 3.5MB Powerpoint of the talk is here
• David at the 55th bookfair at Porto Alegre, Brazil on November 15th. : A review in which they call him a hybrid is here; and a poor but just David Thorpe giving his talk at the 55th bookfair at Porto Alegre, Brazilabout understandable Google translation is here
• David has thoroughly enjoyed running writing workshops at St Nicholas British School, Sao Paulo, last week (Nov 2-6 2009). This week he is at St Paul's School, a much bigger place. He's blogging about his time in Sao Paulo here
• Sustain Wales' November 2009 newsletter is still serialising the Wales for Africa case studies David wrote last year - one per issue. This one, about a learning exchange with Lesotho, begins of page 8 of this link
• Latest (Nov '09) issue of Energy and Environmental Management magazine published - David is the News Editor, plus new environmental blogs on the run-up to the COP 15 climate change talks in December over at the Low Carbon Kid
• David is preparing to go to Sao Paulo to deliver creative writing workshops in two schools, meet his Brazilian editor, Otacilia, for the first time, and Felipe, the comics artist he's been working with for over a year! Otacilia has promised parties, good food, fascinating peopple and a trip to talk and sign at the Porto Alegre bookfair on November 13. He feels very lucky!
• David has been working in October with Film 15 and animator Mikey Ford on the Animation Tank, with local primary school kids. They now know how important stories are - and have some great ones to turn into films in the next few months!
Writing Magazine interview with David Thorpe June 09• Writing Magazine features an interview with David Thorpe in its June 09 issue. Download a pdf of Anita Rowe's interview with David. Also, the current issue of Judge Dredd Megazine (286) carries a long article on the development of the Marvel character Captain Britain, including part of an interview with David on his stint on the comic.
• New Guardian piece: We need a budget for green homes Alistair Darling must set up a co-ordinated plan to encourage energy efficiency and refurbish the nation's dwellings.
• David wins grant to write a new novel. The Drowning will be a novel about two sworn enemies - young teen boys - thrust together to survive in the wild when climate change makes them homeless. He'll be blogging about the process of writing it, and the research results. The £6,326.90 grant is from 'cyfle i greu' - 'chance to create' a scheme run by Powys Arts Forum under the Wales Assembly Government.
• New blog: "The day I met Monty Python's Terry Jones - and what we talked about" [Apr '09]
• He has become the Welsh network coordinator for the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI). British SCBWI's website is: http://britishscbwi.jimdo.com/. You can read a report of the first gathering of SCWBI Wales by clicking here. [Feb '09]
• History of parks - park cartoon New sections have been added to this site [Oct '08]:
• Satirica coverDavid has two stories in Satirica, a collection of satirical science fiction published by Cowboy Logic in the States. They are Perfection, and a Doc Chaos story - The Last Laugh.
• Perfection is a cautionary allegory about addiction, glamour and politics.
• The Last Laugh contemplates the end of civilisation - and imagines the glee of Doc Chaos as we fell prey to the lies we wanted to believe.
• You can buy it on Amazon for around £9 - for 24 hardcore tales. (Oct '08)
• The Wales 4 Africa book for the Welsh Assembly Government is finished. (Oct '08)
• An interview with David in Brazil (September '08)
• Great pics of the launch of Hybrids - Hibridos in Portuguese - at the Sao Paulo bookfair with Johnny Online. (August '08)
• Johnny Online has started his own blog - just like in the book, Hybrids. It is here, at Hybrid Nation (July '08)
• David was given the Lewisham Schools Book Award and hosted a quiz for the kids on June 5 at Forest Hill School, London. Read all about it - The kids are alright, Hail Lewisham, and join the campaigns to publish Hybrids 2, and stop "age banding"!
• David opens a new library at an Academy in London (May '08)
• Hybrids wins the Lewisham Schools Book Award (April '08)
• A cool interview with me in Neonbeam (March '08)
• I am working on a comics adaptation of Hybrids with the Brazilian artist Felipe Cunha - see pics right and below (March '08)
• Hybrids has been shortlisted for the Sefton Super Reads award in the Sefton borough of Merseyside. (January '08)
Kestrella Chu and Johnny Online by Felipe Cunha

What some people have said about Hybrids

"David Thorpe has surely marked a place amongst promising and highly intelligent writers." - John Lloyd of Waterstones, Bath.

"An absolute must read - a terrifyingly realistic and contemporary novel" - Verity Newman, Waterstones Brentstones

"This powerful, compelling tale asks searching questions about what it means to be human. • A dystopic, imaginative sci-fi chiller about our human reliance on technology • Explores the boundaries of what it means to be human • Asks important moral and philosophical questions about rights and responsibilities. This book will provoke lots of thought and debate • Timely and important as we enter an age of robotics, nanotechnology and genetic modification." - Scholastic Autumn 2007 Highlights

"A great debut." - Inis, the Childrens Books Ireland magazine

"There is vigour and validity in Hybrids... a commendable first novel." - James Lovegrove, Financial Times.