Winner of the Writers' and Artists' 2007 New Novel Competition, the 2012 Local Legend Spiritual Writing Competition, the Georgina Hawtrey-Woore YA Novel Award and the Segora International One-Act Play Prize, 2018, plus seven times winner of the Wilfred Hopkins Best Short Story Challenge. Also a retired hospital doctor and a keen photographer.
About the Author
- Oliver Eade, Author -
Born in London, now living in Scotland, Oliver spent his working life as a hospital doctor, retiring in 2003.
In 2004, he awoke one night with a ghost story in his head. He wrote it down and it was seriously bad. A month later, another story emerged. It was better. Then another and another. He couldn’t stop them. Now over fifty have been published, several winning short story competitions.
Oliver follows no particular genre but is often drawn to that space that lies between reality and fantasy; the space into and out of which children slip so easily in their play; the place of myths and legends and the magical realism of Latin American writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende.
His first children’s novel, Moon Rabbit, beautifully illustrated by Alma Dowle, takes a Scottish boy and a Chinese girl on a fantastical journey into Mythological China. On a different level it's about the Daoist belief in Yin and Yang... and the innocence of love between children. It was a winner of the Writers’ & Artists’ 2007 Yearbook New Novel Competition and long-listed for the Waterstone’s 2008 Children’s Book Prize.
He has published sixteen novels, five for adults, six for young adults and five for middle grade readers.
His one act play, The Gap, inspired by being caught up in the Sichuan Earthquake of 2008, was shortlisted for The Rowan Tree One Act Play Competition, 2009 and went on tour in 2012 in a drama double bill, 'Borders Banter', staged by Odd Productions. Another, Schrödinger's Cat, was runner-up winner in The Segora 2017 International Playwriting Competition. The play went on tour with two more of his plays in 2019.
He belongs to the Society of Authors, the Society of Medical Writers (SOMW) and the Borders Writers’ Forum.
Oliver was awarded the SOMW Wilfred Hopkins Cup for creative writing in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014. He was Society of Civil and Public Service Writers' 'Writer of the Year', 2010.
He is happily married to a beautiful Chinese woman, Yvonne Wei-Lun. They have two children and four granddaughters, all living abroad. Because of this, and his wife’s extensive family in China, he has travelled widely. Experiences from abroad feature strongly in his writing.
His other passion is photography. He took a diploma course in photography after retiring, he has been awarded prizes in photographic competitions and his images have appeared in Amateur Photographer and on TV. Check out more of Oliver's photos at https://olivereadephotography.org
