Philip Reeve was born in Brighton in 1966. After leaving school he trained as an illustrator, and worked for many years providing cartoons and illustrations for the Horrible Histories and Murderous Maths books. His first novel, the epic Mortal Engines, was published in 2001. It went on to win the Smarties and Blue Peter prizes, and a movie adaptation, directed by Christian Rivers and produced by Peter Jackson, was released in 2018.
Mortal Engines was followed by three sequels - Predator′s Gold, Infernal Devices, and A Darkling Plain - and three prequels; Fever Crumb, A Web of Air, and Scrivener′s Moon. A collection of related short stories, Night Flights, with illustrations by Ian McQue, was published in 2018, along with The Illustrated World of Mortal Engines, which was co-written with Jeremy Levett and featured artwork by an array of illustrators. Recently Philip has returned to the world of Mortal Engines with a new story, Thunder City, set about 100 years before the original book and featuring an entirely new cast of characters. A second story about them, Bridge of Storms, publishes in February 2026, and a third is already in the works.
Here Lies Arthur, Philip’s take on the Arthurian legends, won the Carnegie Medal in 2008. He is also the author of the Goblins trilogy of comic fantasy stories and the Victorian space fantasy Larklight (illustrated by David Wyatt). The Railhead trilogy (Railhead, Black Light Express and Station Zero) is more traditional science fiction: a critically acclaimed adventure set in a galaxy populated by thieves and androids, exiles and emperors, insects and intelligent trains. The three books about Utterly Dark (Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep, Utterly Dark and the Heart of the Wild, and Utterly Dark and the Tides of Time), fantasies inspired by Dartmoor and Cornwall and set on the imaginary island of Wildsea in the early 19th Century, are Philip’s personal favourites.
In 2013 Philip joined forces with illustrator Sarah McIntyre to create Oliver and the Seawigs, the first in a series of funny, highly-illustrated adventure stories which continued with Cakes in Space, Pugs of the Frozen North, Jinks and O′Hare Funfair Repair, and the Roly Poly Flying Pony series: The Legend of Kevin, Kevin′s Great Escape, Kevin and the Biscuit Bandit and Kevin vs the Unicorns. Their current series is Adventuremice; short, funny adventures about a band of daring mice, illustrated in full colour with Sarah’s beautiful pictures.
Philip lives on Dartmoor with his wife and son.
© 2003-2026