Frank Cottrell Boyce, father of seven, is an established British screenwriter whose credits include GOD ON TRIAL, WELCOME TO SARAJEVO, HILARY AND JACKIE and 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE. He lives in Merseyside with his family. Frank's first book, Millions won the CILIP Carnegie Medal in 2004 and has been shortlisted for a number of awards including the Guardian Children's Fiction Award 2004. Millions has also been made into a movie directed by Danny Boyle (with a screen-play written by Frank) and was chosen as the Liverpool Reads book for 2005/06.
Frank's second novel, Framed, was published in September 2005. Framed has followed the success of Millions, being shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, the Whitbread Award and the Guardian Prize. It was also selected as a Booked Up title in 2007 and was made into a feature-length drama, broadcast on BBC1 in August 2009 (with a screen-play written by Frank). Frank's third novel, Cosmic, was published in June 2008 and was shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2008, the CILIP Carnegie Medal and the inaugural Roald Dahl Funny Prize.
In his own words: 'Shortly after leaving university, I had a radio play broadcast and it led to a job at Thames Television (Education Department), where I met Michael Winterbottom who was an editor at the time. We planned to make movies. At the time everyone in England had given up on films. It was after the Goldcrest debacle so it was like saying you wanted to do door-to-door roof thatching or scrimshaw work - a lost art. I supported myself by writing for CORONATION STREET - wonderful fun and the nearest I've ever got to a proper job. Then we made WELCOME TO SARAJEVO and we've made several films since. Other screenplays that I have written include: THE STRANER (nominated for a BAFTA), BUTTERFLY KISS, WELCOME TO SARAJEVO, HILARY AND JACKIE (also nominated for a BAFTA), PANDEMONIUM, 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE, THE CLAIM, CODE 46, GROW YOUR OWN and MILLIONS.
When I met my wife-to-be, she was planning on becoming a nun. Luckily I managed to persuade her to marry me instead. We now have 7 children, ranging from 24 to five years old and we live in Liverpool.
I can just about remember sitting on the couch with my parents, watching the first men landing on the Moon. We really did think that we were living in the space age and that by the time I had children we would all be able to go on space holidays together. Lots of other amazing things happened instead, of course, but I am still hoping that one day I'll go into space. In the meantime it seemed like it would be fun to go there in my own imagination."
