This week, we welcome Alastair Chisholm - yes, only the brilliant, prolific, award-winning, award-nominated picturebook and middle grade author - to the podcast, and we hope you'll join us for the journey! Alastair has written about starships lost in space, about characters who can see back through time, about huge mecha-animals powered by human will, and - best of all - about ninja frogs, and that's just to name some of the books in his incredible back catalogue. Come with us as he takes us through the stories that have shaped him, and which continue to shape his world and his work.

Books mentioned in this week's episode include some of Alastair's own:

The Dragon Storm series, illustrated by Eric Deschamps

The Consequence Girl

Orion Lost

Adam-2

I Am Wolf

I Am Raven

And the stories which have shaped him include:

The Silmarillion, by JRR Tolkien

The Grey King, by Susan Cooper

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, by Alan Garner

Charmed Life, by Diana Wynne Jones

Homeward Bounders, by Diana Wynne Jones

Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones

Archer's Goon, by Diana Wynne Jones

Asterix, by Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo (et al)

The Eagle comic, founded by Marcus Morris

2000 AD, created by Kelvin Gosnell, Pat Mills, John Wagner

The Chronicles of Narnia, by CS Lewis

The work of Nicholas Fisk

The work of Jan Mark

The work of Isaac Asimov

The work of Robert Heinlein

The Stainless Steel Rat, by Harry Harrison

The Best of Harry Harrison - short story anthology

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever, by Stephen Donaldson

Zenith, by Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell

The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway (Alastair's edition has illustrations by CF Tunnicliffe and Raymond Sheppard)

The Chrysalids, by John Wyndham

The Day of the Triffids, by John Wyndham

The work of Sir Terry Pratchett

Legend, by David Gemmell

Master and Commander (series), by Patrick O'Brian

Sword of the Sun, by Sinéad O'Hart

The World Between the Rain, by Susan Cahill

Wren, by Lucy Hope

A Kind of Spark, by Elle McNicoll

Sticky Pines: The Bigwoof Conspiracy, by Dashe Roberts

Bird Boy, by Catherine Bruton

Dungeon Runners, by Kieran Larwood and Joe Todd Stanton

The work of Christopher Edge

Our podcast bookshop in Ireland is Halfway Up the Stairs: www.halfwayupthestairs.ie. You might also like to check out www.kennys.ie for free shipping within the Republic of Ireland!

In the UK, check out our storefront on: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/Storyshaped. Disclaimer: If you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops.

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