I don't remember deciding to become a writer. You decide to become a dentist or a postman. For me, writing is like being gay. You finally admit that this is who you are, you come out and hope that no one runs away.

com Haddon claimed that this was the first book that he wrote intentionally for an adult audience; he was surprised when his publiMark Haddonr suggested marketing it to both adult and child audiences (it has been a great hit with adults and children alike). In 2003 Haddon won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and in 2004 the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Overall Best First Book for his novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time a book which is written from the perspective of a 15-year-old boy with Asperger syndrome. In 2009 he donated the short story "The Island" to Oxfam's 'Ox-Tales' project four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors.