Jean-Claude Mourlevat
Jean-Claude Mourlevat began his working life as a German teacher before changing paths and working as an actor, clown and director. It was the theatre that led him to begin writing, and in 1997 he made his authorial debut with the picture book Histoire de l’enfant et de l’oeuf.
Jean-Claude Mourlevat’s writing is wide-ranging and diverse. He writes novels of social critique, but has a particular fondness for the fairy tale, fable and fantasy genres. He surprises readers with each new book, assuming new guises and using unexpected narrative devices. References to classic works, metaphor and simile link his stories to the present day.
A love of books and literature flows through all his writing. This may be because he spent his childhood in a home with almost no books. Jean-Claude Mourlevat grew up on a farm as the fifth of six siblings. He spent eight years at a boarding school where the rules were harsh, the teachers strict and he felt constantly homesick and unhappy. He has said in interviews that literature became his salvation.
