Recent from talks
Joseph Delaney
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Joseph Delaney
Joseph Henry Delaney (25 July 1945 – 16 August 2022) was an English author, best known for the children's dark fantasy series Spook's. The series draws on the folklore, history, and geography of Lancashire, and has been published in 30 countries, with reported sales of more than 4.5 million copies.
Born in Preston, Lancashire, Delaney worked as a teacher before publishing science fiction and fantasy fiction under the pen name J. K. Haderack. After finding limited success as an author of books for adults, he began writing for children under his own name. His first children's book, The Spook's Apprentice, was published in 2004. It won several awards and was later adapted as a play script, the feature film Seventh Son, and a French graphic novel.
The Spook's Apprentice began the Spook's sequence, which grew to 20 books, with additional works set in the same fictional world. After the publication of the second book in the series, Delaney retired from teaching to write full-time. He also wrote two other children's series, the science fiction and fantasy trilogy Arena 13 and the dark fantasy duology Aberrations. Delaney died in Manchester in 2022, aged 77. His final book, Brother Wulf: Wulf's War, was published posthumously in 2023.
Joseph Henry Delaney was born on 25 July 1945 in Preston, Lancashire, the son of a labourer. He was the oldest of four children. As a child, Delaney had a recurring nightmare in which he sat with his mother while she knitted, before a shadowy figure emerged from the coal cellar, picked him up, and carried him into darkness.
Delaney attended Preston Catholic College and then worked as an apprentice engineer. He took his A-Levels at night school before studying English, history, and sociology as a mature student at Lancaster University, aged 27.
After graduating, he studied at St Martin's College to become a teacher. He later became an English teacher at Blackpool Sixth Form College, where he started the Media and Film Studies Department.
In the 1980s, Delaney completed an Open University degree while considering a move into computer programming. In 1983, he moved to the village of Stalmine, where he learned that a priest was said to have once encountered a boggart in the area.
Delaney's first published works appeared under the pen name J. K. Haderack, a reference to the Kwisatz Haderach from Frank Herbert's Dune universe. After difficulty finding success with science fiction and fantasy books for adults, his agent encouraged him to try writing for younger readers in response to a brief from a children's publisher.
Hub AI
Joseph Delaney AI simulator
(@Joseph Delaney_simulator)
Joseph Delaney
Joseph Henry Delaney (25 July 1945 – 16 August 2022) was an English author, best known for the children's dark fantasy series Spook's. The series draws on the folklore, history, and geography of Lancashire, and has been published in 30 countries, with reported sales of more than 4.5 million copies.
Born in Preston, Lancashire, Delaney worked as a teacher before publishing science fiction and fantasy fiction under the pen name J. K. Haderack. After finding limited success as an author of books for adults, he began writing for children under his own name. His first children's book, The Spook's Apprentice, was published in 2004. It won several awards and was later adapted as a play script, the feature film Seventh Son, and a French graphic novel.
The Spook's Apprentice began the Spook's sequence, which grew to 20 books, with additional works set in the same fictional world. After the publication of the second book in the series, Delaney retired from teaching to write full-time. He also wrote two other children's series, the science fiction and fantasy trilogy Arena 13 and the dark fantasy duology Aberrations. Delaney died in Manchester in 2022, aged 77. His final book, Brother Wulf: Wulf's War, was published posthumously in 2023.
Joseph Henry Delaney was born on 25 July 1945 in Preston, Lancashire, the son of a labourer. He was the oldest of four children. As a child, Delaney had a recurring nightmare in which he sat with his mother while she knitted, before a shadowy figure emerged from the coal cellar, picked him up, and carried him into darkness.
Delaney attended Preston Catholic College and then worked as an apprentice engineer. He took his A-Levels at night school before studying English, history, and sociology as a mature student at Lancaster University, aged 27.
After graduating, he studied at St Martin's College to become a teacher. He later became an English teacher at Blackpool Sixth Form College, where he started the Media and Film Studies Department.
In the 1980s, Delaney completed an Open University degree while considering a move into computer programming. In 1983, he moved to the village of Stalmine, where he learned that a priest was said to have once encountered a boggart in the area.
Delaney's first published works appeared under the pen name J. K. Haderack, a reference to the Kwisatz Haderach from Frank Herbert's Dune universe. After difficulty finding success with science fiction and fantasy books for adults, his agent encouraged him to try writing for younger readers in response to a brief from a children's publisher.
Recent media