Ostrich Boys

Keith was born and brought up in Grimsby.

His first book, Creepers, was published in 1996 when he was only 24. The novel was highly acclaimed and shortlisted for the Guardian Award. It was translated into several languages and was a big hit in America. His short novel, The Runner, won the Smarties Silver Award and was given a special mention in the Japanese Sankei Prize for Children’s Publishing.

Keith has now published several teen novels as well as his younger fiction titles. His aim is to write strong, accessible fiction for the sceptical and hard-to-please reader he once was.

Warehouse, the story of a community of runaways told from three different perspectives was shortlisted for the Guardian Award, and won the Angus Book Award, as chosen by teenage readers themselves. Happy, his gritty story of friendship, love and betrayal as two friends try to realise a dream of making it big in a rock band was shortlisted for the Lancashire Book Award.

Malarkey followed in June 2003 to fantastic critical acclaim. Described by the Sunday Times as ‘clever, cool and suspenseful’, it is an off-beat spin on film noir detective stories, set in a modern high school where the eponymous hero is framed for a crime he didn’t commit and has only 24 hours to prove his innocence. The novel won the South Lanarkshire Book Award as well as being shortlisted for the Book Trust Teenage Prize, the Angus Book Award, Calderdale Book Award, Lancashire Book Award, Leicester Book Award and Wirral Paperback of the Year.

The Fearful, challenges readers to question blind faith but condemn intolerance towards others’ beliefs. The Fearful was long listed for the Carnegie Medal.

Keith’s latest novel Ostrich Boys, published in July 2008, follows three friends Kenny, Sim and Blake who embark on a remarkable journey of friendship. Stealing the urn containing the ashes of their best friend Ross, they set out from Cleethorpes on the east coast to travel the 261 miles to the tiny hamlet of Ross in Dumfries and Galloway. After a depressing and dispriting funeral they feel taking Ross to Ross will be a fitting memorial for a 15 year-old boy who changed all their lives through his friendship. Little do they realise just how much Ross can still affect life for them even though he's now dead.

This is Keith Gray's first new novel in three years and is a wonderful rites-of-passage story combing elements from Stand By Me, An Inspector Calls and Grand Theft Parsons. Ostrich Boys was shortlisted for the 2008 Costa Children’s Book of the Year Award.

Keith lectured for two years in Creative Writing at the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside, where he really enjoyed working with people who shared the same interests and ambitions as him. He now lives in Edinburgh and spends much of his time visiting schools passing on his love of books.