Craig Raymond Stone (born 24 August 1980) is a British author. He left a job in the city to live homeless in a park,[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] during which time he wrote his first book, The Squirrel that Dreamt of Madness,[8] a semi-autobiographical account of his time in the park. He later wrote Life Knocks,[9] Deep in the Bin of Bob[10] and How to Hide from Humans, and is the author of the blog, Thought Scratchings,[11] shortlisted for the 2014 UK Blog Awards.

Craig Stone
BornCraig Raymond Stone
(1980-08-24) 24 August 1980 (age 43)
London, England
OccupationNovelist
NationalityEnglish
Period2008–present
Genre
  • Horror
  • Fantasy
  • Biographical
Notable works
  • Life Knocks
  • The Squirrel that Dreamt of Madness
  • Deep in the Bin of Bob
SpouseCarolyn
Children2
Website
thoughtscratchings.com Edit this at Wikidata

His second novel Life Knocks was shortlisted for the Dundee International Book Prize.[12][13]

Personal life edit

At the age of 30 Stone quit his job and became homeless, living under a tree in Gladstone Park, North London. While here he wrote his first novel, The Squirrel that Dreamt of Madness. Stone lived with his sister to escape the park and the book went on to receive hundreds of five star reviews.[14][15] His future wife read the book during this time, and reached out to him through Twitter. She messaged him as a fan, expressing how much she enjoyed his first novel, and today they have a son and a daughter.

Stone is an advocate for homeless people in the UK.[16]

Stone is also an advocate for mental health awareness.[17][18][19]

Stone has over 100,000 Twitter followers.[20] Some of his tweets have been featured in the press.[21][22][23]

His fourth novel is coming in 2023, titled The Last March of the Pirate Snails. It is notable because the novel is 78,000+ words and entirely rhymes.[24]

Today, Stone is a contributing journalist for The Guardian Newspaper[25][26] and AL Jazeera[27][28]

References edit

  1. ^ "Man Who Went From Homelessness to a Successful Author Is Your Inspiring Story of the Day".
  2. ^ Metro.co.uk, Lisa Bowman for (30 November 2016). "Former homeless man explains how to help (and how it could happen to anyone)".
  3. ^ "30/11/2012, The Comedy Café". BBC Radio Scotland.
  4. ^ "This Man Went From Being Homeless to a Successful Published Author - TheLADbible".
  5. ^ "SBTV | Irish Paddy | the Come up (Prod. By Spookzville) [Music Video]".
  6. ^ "From sleeping rough to becoming a published author: This man's story will make you think twice about ignoring the homeless". 9 December 2016.
  7. ^ "Homelessness survivor tweets journey from sleeping rough to writing books - The USA Times -US News,World News, Politics, Economics, Entertainment,Sport,Business & Finance". 28 November 2016. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 15 December 2016.
  8. ^ "The Squirrel that Dreamt of Madness - - Matador Fiction - @craigstone_".
  9. ^ "Opening the Door to Life: an Interview with Craig Stone". 19 September 2016.
  10. ^ Stone, Craig (20 February 2014). Deep in the Bin of Bob. Craig Stone.
  11. ^ "Thought Scratchings".
  12. ^ http://www.deadlinenews.co.uk/2012/05/17/2012-dundee-international-book-prize-shortlist-announced-and-ebook-launched// Shortlisted for the Dundee International Book Prize 2012
  13. ^ "University of Dundee : External Relations : Press Office".
  14. ^ "The Squirrel that Dreamt of Madness". Goodreads. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  15. ^ Stone, Craig (22 April 2016). The Squirrel That Dreamt of Madness. Matador. ISBN 978-1-78589-066-6.
  16. ^ "This best-selling author was once homeless and has explained how easily it can happen - JOE.ie".
  17. ^ "This story about depression is the most important thing you'll read today | indy100 | indy100". www.indy100.com. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  18. ^ "Dad's Powerful Tweet About Depression Reminds Others They Are Not Alone". HuffPost. 21 November 2017. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  19. ^ Haysom, Sam (20 November 2017). "This writer's emotional post about depression is actually incredibly uplifting". Mashable. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  20. ^ "craig stone (@craigstone_)". Twitter. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  21. ^ Mulroy, Zahra (1 December 2016). "People can't decide if this is a piece of bread - or a sponge".
  22. ^ "People Can't Decide If This Is A Photo of Sponge Or Bread". 2 December 2016.
  23. ^ "This is why MPs started laughing after the Syria air strikes vote". 3 December 2015.
  24. ^ "Craig Stone Status". Twitter. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  25. ^ "Craig Stone | The Guardian". the Guardian. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  26. ^ "The day violent thugs were driven out by hippies with glowsticks | Craig Stone". the Guardian. 1 January 2017. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  27. ^ "Craig Stone | Al Jazeera News | Today's latest from Al Jazeera". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  28. ^ Stone, Craig. "How society's indifference murdered a man in Paris". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 5 July 2023.

External links edit