Neil Gaiman facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Neil Gaiman
Gaiman in 2013
Born	Neil Richard Gaiman (1960-11-10) 10 November 1960 (age 64) Portchester, Hampshire, England
Occupation	Author comic book writer screenwriter voice actor
Genre	Fantasy horror science fiction dark fantasy comedy
Years active	1984–present
Notable works	The Sandman, Neverwhere, American Gods, Stardust, Coraline, The Graveyard Book, Good Omens, The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Spouses	Mary McGrath ​ ​ (m. 1985; div. 2007)​ Amanda Palmer ​ ​ (m. 2011; separated 2022)​
Children	4

Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman (born 10 November 1960) is a famous English author. He writes many different kinds of stories. These include novels, comic books, audio plays, and screenplays for movies and TV shows.

Some of his most well-known works are the comic series The Sandman (1989–1996) and the novels Good Omens (1990), Stardust (1999), American Gods (2001), Coraline (2002), Anansi Boys (2005), The Graveyard Book (2008), and The Ocean at the End of the Lane (2013). He also helped create TV shows based on Good Omens and The Sandman.

Neil Gaiman has won many important awards for his writing. These include the Hugo Award, Nebula Award, and Bram Stoker Award. He also won the Newbery Medal and the Carnegie Medal. He was the first author to win both the Newbery and Carnegie medals for the same book, The Graveyard Book. His novel The Ocean at the End of the Lane was named Book of the Year at the British Specsavers National Book Awards. It was also turned into a popular play in London.

Neil Gaiman's Early Life and Education

Neil Richard Gaiman was born on 10 November 1960 in Portchester, England. His family has Polish-Jewish roots. His great-grandfather moved to England from Antwerp before 1914. His grandfather settled in Portsmouth and started a chain of grocery stores. The family name was changed from Chaiman to Gaiman.

His father, David Bernard Gaiman, worked in the family stores. His mother, Sheila Gaiman, was a pharmacist. Neil has two younger sisters, Claire and Lizzy.

In 1965, the Gaiman family moved to East Grinstead. Neil learned to read when he was four years old. He loved reading and was very good at school subjects. This was because he would read his schoolbooks as soon as he got them.

When he was about 10, he read all of Dennis Wheatley's books. The Ka of Gifford Hillary and The Haunting of Toby Jugg especially impressed him. Another book that made a big impact was J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. He also loved C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia. He admired how Lewis talked directly to the reader in his books. Narnia also introduced him to literary awards, like the Carnegie Medal. When Gaiman won the Carnegie Medal himself in 2010, he said it was the most important literary award. He also enjoyed Batman comics as a child.

Gaiman attended Ardingly College in Ardingly, West Sussex.

Gaiman went to several Church of England schools. These included Fonthill School, Ardingly College (1970–1974), and Whitgift School (1974–1977). He lived in East Grinstead for many years, from 1965 to 1980 and again from 1984 to 1987.

He met his first wife, Mary McGrath, in East Grinstead. They married in 1985 and had three children together.

Neil Gaiman's Writing Career

Neil Gaiman has been influenced by many writers. These include Mary Shelley, Rudyard Kipling, Edgar Allan Poe, and Ursula K. Le Guin. He is a big fan of the Monty Python comedy group. He also found inspiration in the visually amazing stories of Metal Hurlant comics from France.

Early Journalism and First Books

In the early 1980s, Gaiman worked as a journalist. He wrote interviews and book reviews. This helped him learn about the world and meet people who could help him get his own stories published. His first short story, "Featherquest," was published in 1984.

Gaiman often visited the Forbidden Planet comic store in London.

In 1984, he saw a copy of Swamp Thing by Alan Moore. Moore's way of writing comics greatly influenced Gaiman. He started visiting the Forbidden Planet comic shop regularly.

His first book was a biography of the band Duran Duran in 1984. He also helped edit Ghastly Beyond Belief, a book of quotes. Gaiman stopped journalism in 1987 because he felt newspapers often published untrue information.

In the late 1980s, he wrote Don't Panic: The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Companion. After this, he started writing Good Omens with Terry Pratchett. This funny novel is about the end of the world.

Neil Gaiman's Work in Comics

After becoming friends with Alan Moore, Gaiman learned how to write comic scripts. He started writing comic books like Miracleman. His first published comic strips were for 2000 AD in 1986–87. He also wrote three graphic novels with his friend Dave McKean: Violent Cases, Signal to Noise, and The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch.

DC Comics hired him in 1987. He wrote the series Black Orchid. Impressed by his work, Karen Berger at DC Comics asked Gaiman to re-imagine an old character, the Sandman.

The Sandman series began in 1989 and ended in 1996. It tells the story of Dream, who is also called Morpheus. Many artists worked on the series, including Sam Kieth and Jill Thompson. The series became very popular, even more so than Batman and Superman for a time. All 75 issues have been collected into 12 volumes and are still in print.

In The Sandman, Gaiman introduced Death, Dream's older sister. She became very popular. The series Death: The High Cost of Living started DC's Vertigo comic line in 1993.

Comics expert Les Daniels called Gaiman's work "amazing." He said The Sandman was a mix of fantasy, horror, and humor that comics had never seen before.

Gaiman wrote two series for Marvel Comics. Marvel 1602 (2003–2004) was drawn by Andy Kubert. The Eternals (2006–2007) was drawn by John Romita Jr..

In 2009, Gaiman wrote a two-part Batman story called "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?" He also wrote a Metamorpho story for Wednesday Comics. In 2013, DC Comics released The Sandman: Overture. Gaiman's character Angela was introduced into the Marvel Universe in 2013.

Gaiman also oversaw The Sandman Universe, a line of comic books from Vertigo. These comics expanded the world of The Sandman.

Neil Gaiman's Novels

Gaiman's first novel, Good Omens, was published in 1990. He wrote it with Terry Pratchett. Pratchett later said that while they both contributed ideas, he did more of the writing and editing because Gaiman was busy with Sandman.

His first solo novel was Neverwhere in 1996. It was based on a TV series he wrote for the BBC. Gaiman has revised the novel twice since its first release.

In 1999, his fantasy novel Stardust was published. This novel was greatly inspired by Victorian fairy tales.

American Gods (2001) became one of Gaiman's most popular and award-winning novels. A special 10th Anniversary edition was released with extra content. Gaiman has not written a direct sequel, but he has revisited the characters. The 2005 novel Anansi Boys is about the two sons of the character Anansi from American Gods. It was a number one bestseller.

In 2002, Gaiman wrote the dark fairy tale Coraline for children. In 2008, he released The Graveyard Book, a young adult novel. It tells the story of a boy named Bod who is raised by ghosts in a graveyard after his family is murdered. It was influenced by Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. By early 2009, it had been on The New York Times Bestseller list for children's books for fifteen weeks.

In 2013, The Ocean at the End of the Lane won Book of the Year at the British National Book Awards. The story is about a man who remembers strange events from his childhood. It explores themes of self-identity and the difference between childhood and adulthood. It was also made into a successful play.

In 2016, Neil Gaiman announced he was retelling Norse mythology stories. Norse Mythology was released in 2017.

Neil Gaiman's Film and Screenwriting Work

Gaiman wrote the 1996 BBC TV series Neverwhere. He also co-wrote the screenplay for the movie MirrorMask with Dave McKean. He wrote the English script for the anime movie Princess Mononoke.

He co-wrote the script for Robert Zemeckis's Beowulf (2007) with Roger Avary. Gaiman also wrote an episode of the TV series Babylon 5 called "Day of the Dead".

Many of Gaiman's books have been made into movies. Stardust premiered in 2007, starring Charlie Cox and Michelle Pfeiffer. A stop-motion animated version of Coraline was released in 2009, directed by Henry Selick.

Gaiman's book The Graveyard Book is being made into a movie, with Ron Howard as the director.

Gaiman wrote two episodes of the popular BBC science fiction series Doctor Who. The first, "The Doctor's Wife", aired in 2011 and won a Hugo Award. The second, "Nightmare in Silver", aired in 2013. He also wrote a mini-episode for the web series Doctor Who: Lockdown in 2020.

In 2011, Gaiman appeared as himself on The Simpsons episode "The Book Job".

In 2015, Starz began a TV series adaptation of Gaiman's novel American Gods. Gaiman won a Hugo Award in 2020 for the TV miniseries adaptation of Good Omens, for which he wrote the screenplay. In 2023, he voiced Gef in the movie Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose.

Neil Gaiman's Radio Work

A six-part radio play of Neverwhere was broadcast in 2013 on BBC Radio 4. It featured actors like James McAvoy and Benedict Cumberbatch.

In 2014, Gaiman and Terry Pratchett worked with BBC Radio 4 to create the first radio play of Good Omens. In 2021, Gaiman was cast as Duke Aubrey in a radio adaptation of Hope Mirrlees' novel Lud-in-the-Mist.

Public Appearances and Advocacy

Gaiman often gives public readings of his stories and poems. He has toured with his wife, musician Amanda Palmer. He sometimes sings during these performances.

In 2015, Gaiman gave a long lecture called How Stories Last about how stories continue to be important in human culture. In 2018, Gaiman appeared as a guest on the TV show The Big Bang Theory.

Gaiman is a strong supporter of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. This organization helps protect the freedom to create and read comics. He has served on its board of directors.

In 2016, Gaiman appeared in a video for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to help raise awareness about global refugees. In 2022, Gaiman supported Ukraine during the Russian invasion. He said he would not renew contracts with Russian publishers and encouraged donations for Ukrainian refugees. In 2023, he signed an open letter asking for the release of Russian prisoner Alexei Navalny.

Awards and Honours for Neil Gaiman

Note: Gaiman's Carnegie Medal win for The Graveyard Book made him the first author to have won both the Carnegie & Newbery Medals for the same work.

Other Awards & Honours

• 3- time winner (1991/1992/1993) of the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Awards for "Favorite Writer".
• 3-time (1992/1993/1994) winner of the Don Thompson Awards for "Best Achievement by a Writer".
• 1997 Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Defender of Liberty award
• 2005 The William Shatner Golden Groundhog Award for Best Underground Movie, nomination for MirrorMask. The other nominated films were Green Street Hooligans, Nine Lives, and Up for Grabs.
• 2007 & 2008: Winner of the Galaxy Award for Most Popular Foreign Writer.
• 2010 Gaiman was selected as the Honorary Chair of National Library Week by the American Library Association.
• 2012: Honorary Doctorate of Arts from the University of the Arts
• 2016: University of St Andrews Honorary degree of Doctor of Letters
• 2018: Inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.
• 2019: Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award (for authors who help other writers). Gaiman received the award for supporting freedom of expression and inspiring many writers.
• 2020: Children's Literature Lecture Award
• Inducted into the Harvey Awards Hall of Fame in 2022.
• 2023: Named one of Time’s 100 most influential people in the world.

Neil Gaiman's Works

See also

In Spanish: Neil Gaiman para niños