a tribute to

NEIL GAIMAN

Author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre, and films.

facepic of Neil Gaiman
"Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and adventures are the shadow truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes and forgotten." -Neil Gaiman

The Early Years

  • He was born on November 10, 1960 in Port Chester, England, to David Bernard Gaimanand Sheila Gaiman. He has two younger sisters, Claire and Lizzy.
  • His family moved to Sussex town of East Grinstead in 1965 where his parents studied Dianetics in Scientology.
  • He became an avid reader at the age of four and won numerous prizes for his reading ability.
  • He was truly inspired by fantasy novels such as J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia as well as Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
  • He attended several schools in his childhood such as Fonthill School in East Grinstead, Ardingly College and completed high school from Whitgift School in Croydon in 1977.

Career

  • In the early 1980s he became a journalist and started conducting interviews and writing book reviews extensively for British Fantasy Society. His first professional short story, Featherquest, was published in 1984.
  • In 1984, he wrote a book of quotations with Kim Newman, Ghastly Beyond Belief, which proved to be quite successful. Shortly therafter he ended his career as a journalist in 1987.
  • In 1987, he started his career in writing comic books and collaborated with his friend Dave McKean for his graphic novels such as Violent Cases, Signal to Noise and The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch.
  • Impressed by his work, DC Comics hired him to write a three-part series called Black Orchid which was appreciated by its fans. His next big venture included another comic character Sandman and proved to be an immediate hit.
  • His first novel Good Omens was published in collaboration with Terry Pratchett in 1990. He also published novels such as Neverwhere and Stardust in the 1990s and American Gods in 2001 which received the Bram Stoker Award the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 2002
  • He wrote a novella Coraline for young adult readers in 2003 which was very well received by the audiences. This book also received the Bram Stoker Awardthe Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 2003.
  • He is the first author to win both the Newbery and the Carnegie medals for the same work, The Graveyard Book (2008).
  • His other famous works of novel include Anansi Boys (2005) which received the 2006 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature and the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 2006. The Ocean at the End of the Lane was another of his books voted Book of the Year in the British National Book Awards (2011).
  • He also wrote the screenplay for films such as Mirrormask (2005), Beowulf (2007) and for TV Series, Babylon 5 and Doctor Who.