Alex Shearer is a British novelist.

Shearer was recognized as a television scenario writer at age 29 after having produced over 30 works. He was active as a writer for television, movies, theatre, and radio (including plays for BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...

) for 14 years, and then devoted himself to becoming a novelist.

His maiden work was The Dream Maker (1996). It was especially popular as a children's adventure novel, and he was highly esteemed as an internationally bestselling novelist. In Britain, he had a place among young adult genre reviews, but his work extended beyond into various genres. Shearer himself has said that he hates genre divisions (February 2, 2009, during a talk show in an Ikebukuro

Ikebukuro

is a commercial and entertainment district in Toshima, Tokyo, Japan. Toshima ward offices, Ikebukuro station, and several shops, restaurants, and enormous department stores are located within city limits....

 bookstore). He also finds it appealing to continually challenge himself by creating new concepts rather than writing series novels.

Perhaps it's also due to his origins as a scenario writer, but he come to specialize in adopting trivial events which occurred at home and such as his themes and delving into them deeply. Also, he writes quickly, having written "The Great Blue Yonder" within three weeks (mentioned on the same talk show). He writes at a pace of two books a year, and has already had over 25 titles published.

His 2003 novel The Speed of the Dark was shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. The Greatest Store in the World was adapted into a television film by the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

. His novel Bootleg was adapted for a television series by the BBC, and later adapted into manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 and anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 under its Japanese title Chocolate Underground.

Novels

• The Dream Maker (1996)
• Professor Sniff and the Lost Spring Breezes (1996), Gollancz
• Wilmot and Chips (1996), Red Fox
• The Winter Brothers and the Missing Snow (1997), Puffin
• Dr. Twilite and the Autumn Snooze (1997), Puffin
• The Summer Sisters and the Dance Disaster (1997), Puffin
• Box 132 (1997), Harper Collins
• The Crush (1998), Hodder
• Wilmot and Pops (1998), Hodder
• The Greatest Store in the World
  The Greatest Store in the World
  The Greatest Store in the World is a book by Alex Shearer and later made into a telemovie which was broadcast on 24 December 1999. The story is told in flashback by Livvie , a bright young girl who is in police custody on Christmas Day...
  
  (1999), Hodder
• The Great Blue Yonder (2002), Macmillan
• The Stolen (2002), Macmillan
• Sea Legs (2003), Hodder
• Bootleg (2003)
• The Crush (2003)
• The Speed of the Dark (2004), Macmillan
• The Lost (2004)
• The Fugitives (2004), Hodder
• The Great Switcheroonie (2005), Hodder
• The Hunted (2005), Macmillan
• I Was a Schoolboy Bridegroom (2006), Hodder
• Land Lubbers (2007), Hodder
• The Invisible Man's Socks (2007), Macmillan
• Tins (2007)
• Canned (2008), Scholastic Press