Paul Adam
Novelist, Young Adult writer
Paul Adam has written thirteen novels for adults and an award-winning trilogy for children. He has a particular interest in contemporary social and political issues and most of his novels are thrillers, dealing with subjects such as genetically modified crops (Genesis II), Chinese oppression in Tibet (Flash Point), corruption in the Vatican (Unholy Trinity) and the twenty-first century surveillance society in which we live (Enemy Within). Drawing on his love of classical music and, in particular, the violin, he has also written three crime novels featuring Cremona violin maker, Gianni Castiglione.
His three books for children are thrillers, with a strong environmental thread running through them. They centre on Max Cassidy, a teenage escapologist known as the ‘Half-Pint Houdini’. The first book in the series, Escape from Shadow Island, won the Salford children’s book prize. Continuing his interest in the environment, he has written, produced and directed a feature-length documentary about the River Don, in South Yorkshire, charting its transformation from Europe’s most polluted river into one in which life is returning.
Paul Adam has a degree in law and a CELTA qualification in teaching English to speakers of other languages. He has taught individuals and groups as well as doing voluntary work teaching English to refugees.
Before becoming a published writer, he worked as a journalist in the UK and Italy, then as orchestral manager of the Ulster Orchestra. He has also worked as an art gallery exhibitions organiser. He lives in Sheffield and is married with two sons.
Paul Adam has written 13 novels for adults and an award-winning trilogy for children, as well as film and television scripts. From 2019 to 2021 he was a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of Sheffield, helping science students with their academic writing. He has delivered a number of Bridge workshops, both online and face-to-face, most recently at schools in Liverpool, Wellingborough and Nottingham. A former journalist, he has a degree in law and a CELTA qualification in teaching English to speakers of other languages. He has taught individuals and groups and done voluntary work teaching English to refugees.