John Clewarth was born in 1962, in a Yorkshire mining village called Featherstone. He was lucky enough to be brought up in a very happy home, and doubly lucky to have grown up around the time of the Hammer horror films and television shows such as The Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense and Tales of the Unexpected. As he got a little older, as a treat, he was allowed to stay up on a Friday night and watch the spine-tingling series: Appointment With Fear. Couple all this with the great Pan Books of Horror and the plethora of ‘true’ ghost stories that featured in around his local area, and it is perhaps no surprise that John began writing dark, spooky stories.
John has a great career in teaching and loves his job. The youngsters he teaches are excellent sources of inspiration and he finds it useful when writing dialogue and forming characters, to draw upon some of the things he sees and hears at school! John is a natural story-teller and greatly enjoys shaping ideas into tales and fully-developed novels. He writes mainly, but not exclusively, for children and young adults, but has had over 50 short stories published in the independent press under the pseudonym, John Saxton; including a collection of adult horror stories, entitled ‘Bloodshot’.
His first novel, ‘Firestorm Rising’, is a chilling tale, inspired by a visit to a gothic graveyard one dark, rainy day. It is aimed at the 9 to 12 age range, but would certainly appeal to older readers too. His second novel, ‘Demons in the Dark’, is a horror story, broadly aimed at the 10-14 age range, but with an eye on the young adult market. John believes that horror should be scary but fun, and loves to lace his stories with humour. For further details and sneaky previews of these, along with John’s future projects, please visit his website: www.johnclewarth.com
John has just completed the first draft of a chillingly good new Young Adult novel. He aims to secure an agent for this one, as it is simply the scariest thing he has written to date. Keep checking in on his website and Twitter for updates and a release date!
John lives near the ancient town of Pontefract with his wife and two sons and – because of his teaching job and busy family life - he writes mainly after dark
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