Howarth, Lesley
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1952-? ) UK author for Young Adult readers – not to be confused with the British mathematician Leslie Howarth (1911-2001) – whose MapHead sequence, comprising MapHead (1994) and MapHead 2 (1997; vt MapHead: The Return 1997), describes the travails of the eponymous Alien from the Parallel World, whose skin is able to project maps, and his father during their life on the confusing planet Earth, home of his human mother. The Quirx sequence [see Checklist] assembles thematically linked original stories. Of Howarth's sf singletons, Weather Eye (1995) deals with Near-Future Climate Change, which turns out to be turbulent; and Ultraviolet (2001), also set in the Near Future, describes a world so poisoned by environmental degradation that teenagers have some cause to spend most of their time in Virtual Reality environments. Howarth's work constantly and subtly addresses issues of immediate (or imminent) import to its readers. [JC]
Lesley Howarth
born Bournemouth, Hampshire: 29 December 1952
works
series
MapHead
- MapHead (London: Walker Books, 1994) [MapHead: hb/Janet Woolley]
- MapHead 2 (London: Walker Books, 1997) [MapHead: hb/Janet Woolley]
- MapHead: The Return (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press, 1997) [vt of the above: MapHead: hb/Brad Weinman]
- MapHead (London: Walker Books, 2006) [omni of the above two: MapHead: pb/]
Quirx
- Quirx 1: Welcome to Inner Space (London: Hodder Children's Books, 1997) [coll: Quirx: pb/George Smith]
- Quirx: The Edge of the World (London: Hodder Children's Books, 1998) [coll: Quirx: pb/George Smith]
individual titles
- Weather Eye (London: Walker Books, 1995) [hb/Fletcher Sidthorp]
- The Pits (London: Walker Books, 1996) [hb/Fletcher Sibthorp]
- Paulina (London: Walker Books, 1999) [hb/]
- Mister Spaceman (London: Walker Books, 1999) [hb/]
- I Managed a Monster (London: Penguin/Puffin, 2000) [pb/Gavin Reece]
- Ultraviolet (London: Penguin/Puffin, 2001) [pb/Robert Discalfani and Tony Fleetwood]
- Colossus (Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2004) [pb/]
links
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