Joseph Delaney

Author

Joseph Delaney is a British author of dark fantasy and horror fiction for young readers, best known for The Wardstone Chronicles (published as The Last Apprentice in the US), a thirteen-book series that has sold millions of copies worldwide. Born in Preston, Lancashire, in 1945, he worked as an English teacher for many years before... turning to writing full-time. The Wardstone Chronicles follows Tom Ward, apprentice to a Spook who protects the county from ghosts, boggarts, and witches. The series ran from 2004 to 2017, with spin-off novels including the Arena 13 trilogy, a science fiction departure set in a post-apocalyptic world where gladiators fight in an arena against deadly mechanical creatures. The original Wardstone series was adapted into the film Seventh Son in 2014. Delaney draws inspiration from the Lancashire landscape and its rich folklore of witches, boggarts, and supernatural creatures. His writing combines genuine scares with compelling coming-of-age storytelling, creating books that respect young readers' appetite for darkness and danger. His audiobooks and books have thrilled a generation of listeners and readers who discovered that children's fiction could be genuinely frightening and all the better for it. Read more Show less