ALEX WHEATLE

Born on the 3rd of January, 1963, I spent most of my childhood in the notorious Shirley Oaks children’s home a few miles east of Croydon. I spent many lonely hours reading comics like The Beano, Whizzer and Chips and Shoot! On the odd chance I’d pick up a discarded football annual.

Growing up, my heroes were Pele, Muhammad Ali, Viv Richards and Bruce Lee.
I am a massive fan of reggae. In my mid teens I was a founder member of the Crucial Rocker sound system where I wrote lyrics for performances in community halls, youth clubs, house parties and blues dances.

My favourite reggae artists are Dennis Brown, Sugar Minott, Gregory Isaacs, Johnny Osbourne, Barrington Levy, The Mighty Diamonds, The Chantells, Wailing Souls, Dennis Bovell, Brown Sugar and so many more.

My first novel, Brixton Rock, was published to critical acclaim by BlackAmber Books in 1999.
Writers who have inspired me include CLR James, James Baldwin, Chester Himes, Richard Wright, Maya Angelou, Charles Dickens, Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Iceberg Slim, Linton Kwesi Johnson, John Steinbeck, Raymond Chandler, Vanessa Walters, Courttia Newland, Yvvette Edwards, Nadifa Mohammad and Irenosen Okojie.

​

​

AWARDS

2024  Shortlisted for The German Youth Literature Prize - Cane Warriors

2024 The Margins Book Awards - Top Ten  Awards list

2022 Shortlisted for the Yoto Carnegie Greenaway Awards for Cane Warriors

2021 - Winner of The Young Quills Awards for Cane Warriors

2020 -  Shortlisted for the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature 

2017 – Winner of the Renaissance Quiz Writers’ Choice Award for Crongton Knights.
2016 – Winner of the Guardian’s Children’s Fiction Award for Crongton Knights.

2008 – MBE for services to literature.

1999 – London Arts Board New Writers Award for Brixton Rock.

​