Inventing Elliot

Graham Gardner is the second of ten children. He has worked as a bookseller, waiter, civil servant and is now an academic researcher in the Institute of Geography at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, specialising in monitoring and analysing long term trends in the UK countryside. He is also a keen musician, playing rock and classical piano. His first novel, INVENTING ELLIOT, was shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award.

"Graham's Gardner's first novel...is tight and assured, and marks the arrival of an important new talent. The theme is not new, but the journey the story takes always surprises and sometimes shocks with its intensity." -- Wendy Cooling The Bookseller, 20 December 2002 "Once you start, you will not be able to put this gripping and gritty read down!" The Sunday Times, 2 March 2003 "...a moving and subtle story...beautifully but unflashily [written]" -- Adele Geras The Guardian, 15 March 2003 "...fresh and compelling" -- Lindsey Fraser The Guardian Education, 18 March 2003 "It's no mean feat to invoke reader' sympathy, fear, curiosity and fury simultaneously but Gardner achieves just that in a compulsively readable story with huge appeal" Time Out, 19-26 March 2003 "...a first novel which grips from the start...brings to mind Cormier's The Chocolate War...makes riveting reading" Children's Bookseller, 21 March 2003 "A taut and compelling novel" Financial Times, April 2003 "The vocabulary and writing style are fresh, fluent and well tailored to the target audience...Elliot's thoughts are presented with such vivid candour as to grip the reader from page one" -- Elliot Ross, Age 16 The Herald, 5 April 2003 "...taut with menace from the very first page...powerfully plotted, compactly written" -- Dinah Hall Sunday Telegraph, 20 April 2003 "Gardner has produced an extraordinary novel, one which is powerful and intense...You feel every moment of Elliot's agonies and anguish thanks to the powerful use of language and imagery and the sheer intensity of the plot. I couldn't put this book down...Each twist and turn, each revelation, brings a surprise. It is a real gem." Birmingham Post, 3 May 2003 "...creepy but compelling...Gardner is a talented writer; Inventing Elliot is a troubling, raw book" Times Educational Supplement, 16 May 2003 "Gardner's compelling novel convincingly creates a world in which intimidation is both normalised and internalised...There will surely be