Martin Waddell has been writing books for adults, teenagers, and children since the 1960s. That means he has published book in each of seven decades. Across those years he has dipped in and out of diverse genres, found his calling in picture books for children, and built a family and home in Ireland. Read on for a deep dive into Martin Waddell’s incredible life and career.
Childhood
Martin Waddell was born during an air raid over the city of Belfast in 1941. Shortly afterwards, he was evacuated to Newcastle, County Down. This town, and the area around it, would become his lifelong home and provide the inspiration for countless iconic children’s books.
Although his father, Mayne Waddell, was a businessman, Waddell comes from an exceedingly literary family. He is descended from the best-selling novelist Captain Mayne Reid (1818−1883). His great-aunt, Helen Waddell, was an Irish poet, novelist playwright and translator and was awarded the Benson Medal by the Royal Society of Literature in 1927. His great-uncle, Rutherford Mayne, published 13 plays in the early 20th Century, and was a leader of the Ulster Literary Revival. The poet, W. R. Rodgers, was his uncle and he is the cousin of historian Nini Rodgers. It is, perhaps, this distinguished pedigree that meant the idea of writing books was never strange to him.
The family briefly moved to London. After his parents’ marriage broke down, Waddell returned to Belfast with his mother, Alice, before relocating to County Down once more. Although Waddell enjoyed school, he left as soon as he could, and immediately found work as an apprentice for a local newspaper. Waddell’s next move was a more unexpected and dramatic one. In 1958, he left County Down for London, in order to pursue a professional footballing career. His determination paid off . Once there, he won a trial at Fulham FC and was eventually signed to the club where he played in the youth squad for a year.
After leaving Fulham, Waddell returned to the world of writing. His first move was to secure a job with the London-based publisher, Hutchinson, which revealed to him the intricate nuts and bolts of the publishing industry. Peering behind the curtain taught him how to become a professional writer. Spurred on, he spent all of his spare time writing.
Early Success and ‘Otley’
Waddell soon found himself an agent, Jonathan Clowes, who also represented Len Deighton, the author of The Ipcress File. After Waddell had written manuscripts for half a dozen novels, Clowes gave him a copy of The Ipcress File and told him he should write ‘something like that.’ By this time, Waddell was working on a junk stall in Camden Passage at the weekends for fun, and used his knowledge of that world to write the story of an antique dealer caught up in the world of espionage. The resulting novel, Otley (1966) was a huge success and was adapted into a 1969 feature film starring starring Tom Courtenay, Romy Schneider and James Bolam. The film attracted some acclaim. According to one
review: “Of all the spy spoofs that were set off by the James Bond films in the 60s, his was
just about the best.”
Otley, its feature film and the book series that followed, Otley Pursued (1968), Otley Forever (1968) and Otley Victorious (1969), gave Waddell the opportunity to make some big changes in his life. He returned to Ireland, where he settled as a freelance writer in Donaghadee, County Down and married Rosaleen Carragher. Despite his personal and professional success he felt uninspired to continue writing thrillers and began to look for new creative inspiration outside of the genre.
Children’s and Young Adult Writing
In what would ultimately be a career-defining move, Waddell decided to write a book for children instead. The result was a Victorian ghost story for children, In a Blue Velvet Dress (1972). For the first time, Waddell felt he had truly hit the mark. The book had all of the emotional weight he wanted to deliver, along with the brevity and adventure made necessary by the shorter form required by its young readers. Furthermore, Waddell found an ingenious solution to give himself the freedom for his writing to take a diff erent creative direction; to avoid confusion with his adult works, Waddell adopted a new pen name, Catherine Sefton, for his children’s and YA books. Sefton was a family name and Waddell found it both liberating and galvanising to write his children’s works under an entirely different name.
In a Blue Velvet Dress and its follow up, The Sleepers on the Hill (1973), were immediately successful and both were adapted for the BBC soon after publication. In fact, it was Waddell’s 12 year-old sister-in-law, Kathleen (later BBC Head of News in Northern Ireland), who wrote to the BBC to suggest the former was adapted for Jackanory and, with their encouragement, adapted it for them herself.
The Troubles
Waddell felt he had finally hit his stride as a writer. But, in 1972, an event took place that would profoundly shape his life. As political tensions grew in Northern Ireland, Waddell found himself unexpectedly on the frontline of the conflict. After seeing some teenage boys run out of a church in Donaghadee, he went inside to see what they were up to. On the floor, something was fizzing “like a wasps’ nest.” He bent down to inspect it, realising—too late—that it was a makeshift bomb.
Waddell regained consciousness in a hospital. Miraculously, he had survived, buried in the rubble. Thankfully, a passer-by had seen him enter the church and so knew to raise the alarm and search for him. But he was badly injured by the blast and alongside his physical injuries were the deep mental scars of trauma. Waddell was left unable to write. As a result of the explosion, Martin and Rosaleen decided to return to his own “safe” place, Newcastle in County Down.
But Waddell was still unable to write. For six years, he wrote almost nothing. Rosaleen returned to work as an English teacher in a local secondary school while Martin stayed at home and looked after their three children, David, Tom and Peter. This was an unusual and pioneering choice to make at this time. Waddell treasured his time with his three young sons, mindful of the contrast between the close bond he shared with them and the relationship he had with his own father. It was a busy family life and, despite the trauma he had suffered, a wonderful, inspiring one.
His Comeback
In 1978, Waddell’s inspiration finally returned, marking the start of an intensely creative period in which he wrote a diverse array of children’s books, starting with two more Catherine Sefton books, The Ghost and Bertie Boggin (1980) and Emer’s Ghost (1981), before finally writing children’s books under his own name. These included the “Napper” football stories, based on his own time as a footballer and his love for the game, the “Mystery Squad” solve-it-yourself books, and his first major picture book: The Great Green Mouse Disaster (1981).
Writing now as both Catherine Sefton and Martin Waddell in the YA and children’s spaces, his work became more ambitous and prolific. The Irish Trilogy (Starry Night, Frankie’s Story, and The Beat of the Drum) follows the stories of various Irish teens, both Protestant and Catholic, coming of age while navigating the violence and heartbreak of the Troubles and won critical acclaim. Meanwhile, Waddell’s Little Bear picture books were published by Walker to great success. Increasingly, the picture books were growing in popularity and acclaim, and would evolve to be the genre for which Waddell would be best known. His long association with Walker books stems from the enduring love and respect he has for the legendary team there who always put the artist first: David Lloyd, Sebastian Walker, Amelia Edwards, and Wendy Boase. Supported by his agent, Gina Pollinger, it was a happy, productive time in his life.
Inspired by his time as a stay-at-home father and the rugged landscape around Newcastle at the foot of the Mourne Mountains, Waddell had a richness of material to draw upon for his picture books. Even when the main characters are farmyard animals, rather than children, his writing is always relatable, winning him fans amongst parents and children alike. Following the success of the Little Bear series, Waddell continued to capture the picture book market with titles such as Little Dracula, Farmer Duck, Owl Babies, and The Big, Big Sea.
International Acclaim
Waddell is known and well-loved for his spirited and animated performances, reading his books to audiences not just in Ireland but across Europe, Africa, Australia, Asia, North America and Canada too. Constantly inspired by the rugged countryside and coast that surrounds his home, Waddell’s irrepressible passion for connecting with children through stories mean that the third act of his writing career has also been his most prolific and critically acclaimed. Waddell has won multiple prestigious awards including the Smarties Prize, which he has won twice for Can’t You Sleep, Little Bear? in 1988 and for Farmer Duck in 1991; the Kurt Maschler Award, (AKA The Emil) for The Park in the Dark; the Best Book for Babies Award in 1990 for Rosie’s Baby; The Other Award for Starry Night in 1986; and the New York Reading Association Charlotte Award for Owl Babies in 1996. In 2004, IBBY awarded him the ultimate international prize for children’s writers, the Hans Christian Andersen Award, which recognised his “lasting contribution” to children’s literature.
Martin Waddell continues to live in Newcastle, County Down where he has recently embarked upon a new creative adventure. Over the past few years, his focus has evolved from pen to paint. Beginagain, his first exhibition of oil paintings took place in February 2023 at the Spy Pond Gallery in Newcastle.
