Frank Cottrell-Boyce

Frank Cottrell-Boyce
Cottrell-Boyce at the 2015 Berlin International Literature Festival
Born	(1959-09-23) 23 September 1959 (age 65) Bootle, England
Occupation	Scriptwriter, author
Alma mater	Keble College, Oxford
Period	c. 1984–present
Genre	Screenplays, children's novels
Notable awards	Carnegie Medal 2004 Guardian Prize 2012
Spouse	Denise Cottrell
Children	7

Frank Cottrell-Boyce^[1] (born 23 September 1959)^[2] is a British screenwriter, novelist and occasional actor, known for his children's fiction and for his collaborations with film director Michael Winterbottom. He has achieved fame as the writer for the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony and for sequels to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car, a children's classic by Ian Fleming.^[3]

Cottrell-Boyce has won two major British awards for children's books, the 2004 Carnegie Medal for Millions, which originated as a film script, and the 2012 Guardian Prize for The Unforgotten Coat, which was commissioned by a charity.^[3][4] In July 2024 he was appointed as Children's Laureate, succeeding Joseph Coelho.^[5]

Cottrell-Boyce was born in 1959 in Bootle near Liverpool to a Catholic family. He moved to Rainhill,^[6] while still at primary school.^{[clarification needed][7]} He attended St Bartholomew's Primary School in Rainhill^[8] and West Park Grammar School.^[6] He was greatly influenced by reading Moomins growing up.^[9]

He read English at Keble College, Oxford, where he went on to earn a doctorate. He wrote criticism for the magazine Living Marxism. As a result, there was supposedly always a copy of the magazine on sale in the newsagent set of long-running British soap Coronation Street, while Cottrell-Boyce was on the writing staff of that programme.

He met Denise Cottrell, a fellow Keble undergraduate, and they married in Keble College chapel. Together they have seven children.^[10] He is also a patron of the Insight Film Festival,^[11] a biennial, interfaith festival held in Manchester, UK, to make positive contributions to understanding, respect and community cohesion.^[12]

Aidan Cottrell-Boyce, one of the couple's sons, is also a writer.^[13]

He was a leading light in the Liverpool band "Dead Trout" in 1979.

After he met Michael Winterbottom, the two collaborated on Forget About Me. Winterbottom made five further films based on screenplays written by Cottrell-Boyce, Butterfly Kiss, Welcome to Sarajevo, The Claim, 24 Hour Party People and Code 46. Their 2005 collaboration, A Cock and Bull Story, is their last according to Cottrell-Boyce, who asked that his contribution be credited to "Martin Hardy", a pseudonym. He told Variety, "I just had to move on ... what better way to walk away than by giving Winterbottom a good script for free?"^[14]

Other film directors Cottrell-Boyce has worked with include Danny Boyle (Millions), Alex Cox (Revengers Tragedy), Richard Laxton (Grow Your Own) and Anand Tucker (Hilary and Jackie).

Cottrell-Boyce has been praised by Roger Ebert as one of the few truly inventive modern-day screenwriters. He has spoken against the "three-act structure" and the "hero's journey" formulas, which are often regarded as axiomatic truths in the business^{[15][clarification needed]}. Perhaps his most famous example of this is in 24 Hour Party People where the character of Anthony Wilson states that “Scott Fitzgerald said there are no second acts in American lives. This is Manchester. We do things differently. This is the second act” which Cottrell-Boyce has stated was due to criticism of the script not following the three act structure.^[16]

In addition to original scripts, Cottrell-Boyce has also adapted novels for the screen and written children's fiction. His first novel Millions was based on his own screenplay for the film of the same name; it was published by Macmillan in 2004. Cottrell-Boyce won the annual Carnegie Medal from the British librarians, recognising it as the year's best children's book published in the U.K.^[17][18] His next novel Framed, he made the shortlist for both the Carnegie^[19] and the Whitbread Children's Book Award. He adapted it as a screenplay for a 2009 BBC television film. He made the Carnegie shortlist again for Cosmic (2008).^[19] In 2011, he was commissioned to write a sequel to the Ian Fleming children's book Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,^[20] which was published in October 2011 as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again.^[21] In addition to Coronation Street, he wrote many episodes of the soap opera Brookside, as well as its spin-offs Damon and Debbie and South.

He wrote and staged his first original theatre production Proper Clever at the Liverpool Playhouse during the city's European Capital of Culture Year, in 2008. On 18 September 2010, he co-presented the Papal Visit at Hyde Park with TV personality Carol Vorderman. In June 2012, he assumed the position of Professor of Reading (the first such professorship) at Liverpool Hope University.^[22]

Cottrell-Boyce was the writer^[6][23][24] of the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, whose storyline he based on Shakespeare's The Tempest.^[22] He collaborated with director Danny Boyle and other members of the creative team, including designer Mark Tildesley,^[23] in the development of the story and themes, and wrote "short documents that told the story of each segment"^[25] to provide context for choreographers, builders and other participants. He also wrote the brochure,^[23][25] the stadium announcements^[23] and the media guide for presenter Huw Edwards.^[6][25]

Three months later, Cottrell-Boyce won the 2012 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize for The Unforgotten Coat.^[4] That story of a crosscultural friendship was inspired by a Mongolian girl he met as a writer visiting her school, whose family was subsequently deported by the British immigration office. It was commissioned by Reader Organisation of Liverpool and 50,000 copies were given away.^[26] The Guardian Prize is judged by a panel of British children's writers and recognises the year's best book by an author who has not yet won it. Interviewed by the sponsoring newspaper, Cottrell-Boyce told The Guardian that "I'm definitely a children's writer[;] that's what I want to be. I'm always trying to get rid of everything else. ... The movies I'm doing are ones that have been on the blocks for a long time."^[3]

Cottrell-Boyce was made an Honorary Doctor of Literature at Edge Hill University on 16 July 2013.^[27] In 2014, Cottrell-Boyce wrote an episode of Doctor Who, titled "In the Forest of the Night". He also wrote the second episode of the tenth series, "Smile".^[28] In September 2015, Cottrell-Boyce held the keynote speech at the Children´s and Young Adult Program of the 15th Berlin International Literature Festival.^[29]

In January 2018, he was on the victorious Keble College, Oxford University Challenge "famous alumni" team; he got almost all of the points scored by Keble (total score 240) and was lionized on social media as a consequence; Reading University scored 0 in that game, thus making television history.^[30]

Cottrell-Boyce is an advocate for reading aloud and patron of The Reader Organisation. a charity that works through volunteers to bring literature to everyone, through reading aloud in prisons, care homes and other community spaces.^[31] In July 2024 he was appointed as Children's Laureate for the term 2024 to 2026, succeeding Joseph Coelho.^[32]

• Millions (2004)
• Framed (2005)
• Cosmic (2008)
• Desirable (2008)
• The Unforgotten Coat (2011)^[33]
• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again (2011)^[34]
• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Race Against Time (2012)
• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Over the Moon (2013)
• The Astounding Broccoli Boy (2015)
• Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth (2016)
• Runaway Robot (2019)
• Noah's Gold (2021)^[35]

• March 2010 – Desert Island Discs
• December 2017 - University Challenge

• 2004: Buch des Monats des Instituts für Jugendliteratur/Book of the Month by the Institute for Youth Literature (Germany), Millions
• 2004: Carnegie Medal, Millions^[17][18]
• 2004: Luchs des Jahres (Germany), Millions
• 2004: Eule des Monats (Germany), Millions
• 2005: Branford Boase Award, shortlist, Millions
• 2005: Carnegie Medal, shortlist, Framed^[19]
• 2006: Die besten 7 (Germany), Framed
• 2008: Guardian Prize, shortlist, Cosmic
• 2009: Carnegie Medal, shortlist, Cosmic^[19]
• 2011: Gelett Burgess Children's Book Award, Honors, Cosmic
• 2011: Costa Book Awards, shortlist, The Unforgotten Coat

• Author's Blog —April/May 2007
• Frank Cottrell-Boyce at British Council: Literature
• Frank Cottrell-Boyce at IMDb
• Frank Cottrell Boyce at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• WriteAway interview with Frank Cottrell Boyce
• Official Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again website
• Mother Daughter Book Club.com, Interview with Frank Cottrell Boyce

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