Kevin Brooks was born in Exeter and studied in Birmingham and London. He had a varied working life, with jobs in a crematorium, a zoo, a garage and a post office, before - happily - giving it all up when he secured his first book deal for Martyn Pig, a black comedy about a 15-year-old who decides not to tell the authorities when his alcoholic father dies accidentally. Martyn Pig was shortlisted for a 2002 Carnegie Medal and won the 2003 Branford Boase Award, as well as setting the tone for the dark and unsettling subject matter preferred by Kevin in his novels. Kevin's other acclaimed works include Lucas, Kissing The Rain, The Road of the Dead, Black Rabbit Summer and iBoy. His controversial 2013 novel The Bunker Diary won the CILIP Carnegie Medal in 2014. Born Scared is Kevin's first novel for Egmont and his first novel since The Bunker Diary, promising to be every bit as much of a rollercoaster of thrills and surprises. Kevin lives in North Yorkshire.