Skelton, Matthew 1971–

Personal

Born 1971, in Southampton, England. Education: University of Alberta, B.A., M.A.; Somerville College Oxford, D.Phil., 2000.

Addresses

Home—Alberta, Canada.

Career

Writer, 2001—. Visiting lecturer, University of Mainz, Germany, 2001.

Writings

Endymion Spring (novel), Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Adaptations

Endymion Spring was optioned for film by Warner Brothers.

Sidelights

Hailed as "‘The Da Vinci Code for kids,’" aaccording to a Teen Reads.com contributor, Matthew Skelton's novel Endymion Spring tells the story of a powerful book that is rumored to contain all the world's knowledge. The book is discovered in Oxford University's famous Bodleian Library by Blake, the son of a visiting professor. In his novel, Skelton details not only Blake's story, but also that of Endymion Spring, an apprentice to innovative fifteenth-century printer Johann Gutenberg. Endymion has to keep the singular book out of the hands of Gutenberg's patron, the evil Fust. Like Endymion, Blake also "finds himself prey to dark forces," declared Caroline Sanderson in Bookseller, "who will stop at nothing to get their hands on The Last Book." "Allusions to legends and poetry mix with the appeal of a magical book that only answers questions in riddles," stated a Kirkus Reviews contributor. Noting the novel's appeal to "book lovers in particular," a Publishers Weekly reviewer concluded that readers "will savor [the] … palpable whiff of musty shelves and dusty volumes" that emanates from Skelton's fiction debut.

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, June 1, 2006, Jennifer Mattson, review of Endymion Spring, p. 64.

Bookseller, November 18, 2005, Caroline Sanderson, "The Stuff of Dreams," p. 30.

Guardian (London, England), March 25, 2006, Philip Ardagh, "Matthew Skelton's Bookish Historical Tale, Endymion Spring, Doesn't Quite Grab."

Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2006, review of Endymion Spring, p. 637.

Publishers Weekly, July 17, 2006, review of Endymion Spring, p. 159.

School Library Journal, September, 2006, Tim Wadham, review of Endymion Spring, p. 218.

ONLINE

Powells Web site,http://www.powells.com/ (January 3, 2007), interview with Skelton.

Random House Web site,http://www.randomhouse.com/ (January 3, 2007), "A Conversation with Matthew Skelton."

Teen Reads.comhttp://www.teenreads.com/ (November 1, 2006), interview with Skelton.