Malorie Blackman worked as a database manager and systems programmer before becoming a full-time writer. Her reputation has steadily grown and she has been awarded a number of prizes including the WHSmith's Mind-Boggling Books Award and the Young Telegraph/Gimme 5 award for HACKER, the Young Telegraph/Fully Booked award for THIEF! and, more recently, shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal for PIG-HEART BOY. She was voted Voice/Excel Children's Writer of the Year in 1997. Her novel NOUGHTS AND CROSSES has won both the Children's Book Award and the Lancashire Children's Book Award 2002. THE TIMES recently described her as 'a bit of a national treasure.'
A superbly told thriller that will keep readers hooked * The Bookseller * Malorie Blackman is already a bestseller and The Stuff of Nightmares can only add to her fame . . . This book seems bound to be extremely popular -- Nicholas Tucker * Independent * Blackman reaches reluctant readers like few others -- Amanda Craig * The Times * Malorie Blackman is one of the most versatile and forthright of all authors for young adults. She has brought us an ambitious panorama of broken societies and depicted motive and action in searingly effective ways . . . This is a remarkable book, powerful, fearful -- Dennis Hamley * Carousel * It is an intelligent, original and compelling novel -- Simon Treacy * Cork Evening Echo *