Jason Wallace
Encyclopedia
Jason Wallace is a web designer , living in South West London . He is the author of Out of Shadows, the 2010 Costa Children's Book of the Year .
. He has quite an interesting family tree as he is a descendant of Lord George Sanger
Jason Wallace (born in 1969) is a web designer , living in South West London . He is the author of Out of Shadows, the 2010 Costa Children's Book of the Year .
, born in 1969 in South-West England in the town of Cheltenham
. He has quite an interesting family tree as he is a descendant of Lord George Sanger
Jason Wallace (born in 1969) is a web designer , living in South West London . He is the author of Out of Shadows, the 2010 Costa Children's Book of the Year .
, born in 1969 in South-West England in the town of Cheltenham
. He has quite an interesting family tree as he is a descendant of Lord George Sanger
, a world-famous Victorian circus owner, an International English cricketer , and he also comes from the blood line of J.R.R. Tolkien . Jason lived in London
, England in his younger years with his family before residing and attending boarding school in 1983 in Zimbabwe
, Africa. The family emigrated because his parents split up and his mother remarried. At the age of seventeen he aspired for a career as an author and although determined he knew it would be a challenging ambition . Jason spent any free time he had writing and in his younger years he read many non-fiction
books and comic books .
He was a fan of comic books such as Tintin
and Asterix
and authors including Dr.Seuss and Richard Scarry
. In his childhood, among some of his favorite books were James and the Giant Peach
and Danny the Champion of the World. In his adolescent and adult life, he was a fan of Stephen King
and James Herbert
. His least favorite type of literature to read is History and Politics.
His experiences in boarding school
concluding the Rhodesian Bush War
in Zimbabwe, Africa laid the building blocks of his first and Costa Children’s Book Award
winning novel Out of Shadows . Jason currently resides in South West London
, England .
While he attended a boarding school in Zimbabwe not too long after the Rhodesian Bush War/Zimbabwean War of Liberation ended , Jason Wallace wanted to write a story of what he had seen or experienced. The political scene in Zimbabwe was declining and troubled. This inspired Jason Wallace and he began writing fictional stories of what he was encountering. Though the characters in the novel are not real they served to demonstrate the attitudes or personalities people were portraying. Wallace notes that he "came up with the idea of "What if...?" and took it from there" when he was writing Out of Shadows. There may be many similar aspects that his story may share with real life but they are very general details and there is nothing very specific.
Wallace focused on several themes in the novel Out of Shadows such as bullying, racism
, politics
and morality
. The novel is written for a younger audience however it is more relevant to readers between the ages of 11 – 13 and over due to some difficult topics that are being dealt with .
For Robert Jacklin, it's all new: new continent, new country, new school. And very quickly he is forced to understand a new way of thinking, because for some of his classmates the sound of guns is still loud, and their battles rage on... white boys who want their old country back, not this new black African government. Boys like Ivan. Clever, cunning, wicked Ivan. For him, there is still one last battle to fight, and he's taking it right to the very top...”
Personal Life
Jason Wallace is 42 years old , born in 1969 in South-West England in the town of CheltenhamCheltenham
Cheltenham , also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds in the South-West region of England. It is the home of the flagship race of British steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup, the main event of the Cheltenham Festival held...
. He has quite an interesting family tree as he is a descendant of Lord George Sanger
Lord George Sanger
"Lord" George Sanger was an English showman and circus proprietor. Born to a showman father, he grew up working in travelling peep shows. He successfully ran shows and circuses throughout much of the nineteenth century with his brother John...
Jason Wallace (born in 1969) is a web designer , living in South West London . He is the author of Out of Shadows, the 2010 Costa Children's Book of the Year .
Personal Life
Jason Wallace is 42 years old Jason Wallace Website Retrieved 28 October 2011., born in 1969 in South-West England in the town of Cheltenham
Cheltenham
Cheltenham , also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds in the South-West region of England. It is the home of the flagship race of British steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup, the main event of the Cheltenham Festival held...
. He has quite an interesting family tree as he is a descendant of Lord George Sanger
Lord George Sanger
"Lord" George Sanger was an English showman and circus proprietor. Born to a showman father, he grew up working in travelling peep shows. He successfully ran shows and circuses throughout much of the nineteenth century with his brother John...
Jason Wallace (born in 1969) is a web designer , living in South West London . He is the author of Out of Shadows, the 2010 Costa Children's Book of the Year .
Personal Life
Jason Wallace is 42 years old Jason Wallace Website Retrieved 28 October 2011., born in 1969 in South-West England in the town of Cheltenham
Cheltenham
Cheltenham , also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds in the South-West region of England. It is the home of the flagship race of British steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup, the main event of the Cheltenham Festival held...
. He has quite an interesting family tree as he is a descendant of Lord George Sanger
Lord George Sanger
"Lord" George Sanger was an English showman and circus proprietor. Born to a showman father, he grew up working in travelling peep shows. He successfully ran shows and circuses throughout much of the nineteenth century with his brother John...
, a world-famous Victorian circus owner, an International English cricketer , and he also comes from the blood line of J.R.R. Tolkien . Jason lived in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England in his younger years with his family before residing and attending boarding school in 1983 in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
, Africa. The family emigrated because his parents split up and his mother remarried. At the age of seventeen he aspired for a career as an author and although determined he knew it would be a challenging ambition . Jason spent any free time he had writing and in his younger years he read many non-fiction
Non-fiction
Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...
books and comic books .
He was a fan of comic books such as Tintin
Tintin
Tintin, Tin-Tin or Tin Tin may refer to:* The Adventures of Tintin , the series of classic comic books created by Belgian artist Hergé...
and Asterix
Asterix
Asterix or The Adventures of Asterix is a series of French comic books written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo . The series first appeared in French in the magazine Pilote on October 29, 1959...
and authors including Dr.Seuss and Richard Scarry
Richard Scarry
Richard McClure Scarry was a popular American children's author and illustrator who published over 300 books with total sales of over 100 million units worldwide....
. In his childhood, among some of his favorite books were James and the Giant Peach
James and the Giant Peach
James and the Giant Peach is a popular children's novel written in 1961 by British author Roald Dahl. The original first edition published by Alfred Knopf featured illustrations by Nancy Ekholm Burkert. However, there have been various reillustrated versions of it over the years, done by Michael...
and Danny the Champion of the World. In his adolescent and adult life, he was a fan of Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
and James Herbert
James Herbert
James Herbert, OBE is a best-selling English horror writer who originally worked as the art director of an advertising agency. He is a full-time writer who also designs his own book covers and publicity.-Family:...
. His least favorite type of literature to read is History and Politics.
His experiences in boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
concluding the Rhodesian Bush War
Rhodesian Bush War
The Rhodesian Bush War – also known as the Second Chimurenga or the Zimbabwe War of Liberation – was a civil war which took place between July 1964 and December 1979 in the unrecognised country of Rhodesia...
in Zimbabwe, Africa laid the building blocks of his first and Costa Children’s Book Award
Costa Book Awards
The Costa Book Awards are a series of literary awards given to books by authors based in Great Britain and Ireland. They were known as the Whitbread Book Awards until 2005, after which Costa Coffee, a subsidiary of Whitbread, took over sponsorship....
winning novel Out of Shadows . Jason currently resides in South West London
South West London
South West London could refer to:*SW postcode area*South West *Western part of South London*South West...
, England .
Career
Jason Wallace had a challenging journey to becoming a published author. Jason Wallace stated that “getting published didn’t happen overnight, and writing had to become “the other job” for which I didn’t get paid while life continued" . Jason Wallace’s natural talent as a writer was motivated through education. He says he had "always had a fertile imagination, but as far as I’m concerned it’s the school I need to thank for inadvertently nurturing my will to write through strong discipline (there was no such thing as an excuse. ” Out of Shadows was published in March of 2010 and is currently his only published novel. Jason Wallace’s Out of Shadows has received extensive recognition and has established him as a successful published author. He has abandoned his “other job” as a web designer and is currently working on a follow up novel.Inspiration for Out of Shadows
Out of Shadows took one year and six months to complete.While he attended a boarding school in Zimbabwe not too long after the Rhodesian Bush War/Zimbabwean War of Liberation ended , Jason Wallace wanted to write a story of what he had seen or experienced. The political scene in Zimbabwe was declining and troubled. This inspired Jason Wallace and he began writing fictional stories of what he was encountering. Though the characters in the novel are not real they served to demonstrate the attitudes or personalities people were portraying. Wallace notes that he "came up with the idea of "What if...?" and took it from there" when he was writing Out of Shadows. There may be many similar aspects that his story may share with real life but they are very general details and there is nothing very specific.
Out of Shadows Background
The Out of Shadows story line is set in Zimbabwe during the 1980’s , it is historically accurate due to the experiences Wallace shared in the novel .Wallace focused on several themes in the novel Out of Shadows such as bullying, racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
, politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
and morality
Morality
Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
. The novel is written for a younger audience however it is more relevant to readers between the ages of 11 – 13 and over due to some difficult topics that are being dealt with .
Synopsis
“Zimbabwe: 1980s - The war is over, independence has been won and Robert Mugabe has come to power offering hope, land and freedom to black Africans. It is the end of the Old Way and the start of a promising new era.For Robert Jacklin, it's all new: new continent, new country, new school. And very quickly he is forced to understand a new way of thinking, because for some of his classmates the sound of guns is still loud, and their battles rage on... white boys who want their old country back, not this new black African government. Boys like Ivan. Clever, cunning, wicked Ivan. For him, there is still one last battle to fight, and he's taking it right to the very top...”
Reviews
- "…a children's classic..." - Daily ExpressDaily ExpressThe Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
- "...gripping... something that schools should study and readers read." - The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
- "...entirely convincing...a powerful, devastating read..." - Patrick NessPatrick NessPatrick Ness is an American author, journalist and lecturer who lives in London. He holds both American and British citizenship...
, writing for The Guardian
- "Honest, brave and devastating, Out of Shadows is more than just memorable. It's impossible to look away." - Markus ZusakMarkus ZusakMarkus Zusak is an Australian author. He is best known for his books The Book Thief and The Messenger , which have been international bestsellers.- Career :...
, author of The Book Thief
- "... a provocative story, powerfully written." - Keith Gray, The ScotsmanThe ScotsmanThe Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....
- "This novel excels, bringing readers up to the grim, uncertain present with mastery" - Kirkus Magazine, starred review
- "...expert and disturbing..." - BooktrustBooktrustBooktrust is an independent British charity dedicated to encouraging people of all ages and cultures to engage with books. Established in 1992, it has received UK government funding since 2004, and inspired similar schemes in over 20 countries. In December 2010 it was announced that the government...
- "... memorable, moving and disturbing ..." - Lovereading4kids February 2010 'new gen' Debut of the Month title
Awards
- WINNER - Costa Children's Book of the Year 2010 - Costa Book AwardsCosta Book AwardsThe Costa Book Awards are a series of literary awards given to books by authors based in Great Britain and Ireland. They were known as the Whitbread Book Awards until 2005, after which Costa Coffee, a subsidiary of Whitbread, took over sponsorship....
- "...a unanimous winner... A stunning debut novel without a false note. Accomplished and powerful, it changes the way you think."
- Shortlisted for the Booktrust Teenage Prize 2010 - BooktrustBooktrustBooktrust is an independent British charity dedicated to encouraging people of all ages and cultures to engage with books. Established in 1992, it has received UK government funding since 2004, and inspired similar schemes in over 20 countries. In December 2010 it was announced that the government...