'Mastering his imagination'

“Froma good book, I want to be taken to the very edge. I want a glimpse into thatouter darkness.” – Mark Haddon 

 Born in England onthis date in 1962, Haddon is best known for his amazing book and play TheCurious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – a story of a 15-year-oldboy with Asperger’s syndrome – for which he won the Whitbread Award, GuardianPrize, and a Commonwealth Writers Prize.                                               The author of nearly 30 books and many short stories, Haddon said it was his “late” discovery of the joy ofreading that took him off a path toward mathematics and onto one in the writingworld.   “When I was 13 or 14, I started devouring novels; literaturetook quite a while to take me over, but it caught up just in time to save mefrom becoming a mathematician.”
Haddonlikes to use a combination of humor, sensitivity and adventure in his writingand advises beginning writers to, “Use your imagination andyou'll see that even the most narrow, humdrum lives are infinite in scope ifyou examine them with enough care.”