As a child
I was born in Crayford, outside London. My family moved around a fair bit when I was a child, something which made it difficult for me to make friends. I learnt to rely on my imagination, books, and an insatiable curiosity about my surroundings. My brother's stories - he was conscripted and sent to Kenya and Cyprus - fed my interest in new places, exploration and what was to become an abiding interest in maps and geography. I didn't do terribly well at school, mostly because I was a day-dreamer, constantly escaping into imaginary worlds ... and I hated exams. I would like to say that my school years were wonderful but I'd be lying, although I did come across inspirational teachers who taught me the value of language, observation and self-education. My abiding interest was in nature and the natural world. Just beyond our rather tame back garden was the tangled greenery of a bombsite and I'd slip through the broken paling fence and disappear into another world during summer. That broken fence is still a gateway into my writing and my childhood - like that of many writers - It's the wellspring from which I attempt to create my stories.
As an adult
I left school at fifteen and moved from job to job - boy-soldier, clerk, door-to-door salesman - but always in the background was a profound desire to travel and in my twenties I set off across Europe and Asia heading for Australia. Not because I was fascinated by the country itself - I knew remarkably little about it - but because it was, apart from New Zealand, the most distant point on the map where they spoke English. I travelled the world, living out of a rucksack, for nearly five years. I had various adventures in Central and South America, and taught English in Peru and Brazil, before a deep longing to see my parents catapulted me back to Europe. Much as I love Britain, my travels had in some way shrunk it: winter was no longer romantic; I found myself feeling lost and claustrophobic in London. I needed space, light and air. However, I lived for a while in a chaotic share house in Forest Gate with a bunch of Australians and New Zealanders before returning to the 'colonies', where I went to university very late in life and completed a Doctorate. I live in Adelaide now with my family: a fairly typical suburban existence. But, no more than a four hour drive to the north is the outback, that immense and often intimidating red-earth country that refuses to conform to any map. That's when I get itchy feet. There's always another road to drive down, always another turning to take, always another view or friendly face to encounter.
As an artist
I always wanted to be a writer and I've dabbled in various forms but with limited success. I've been writing on-and-off since I was eighteen, so you could say success has come quite late. The Stone Crown is my first and, to date, only YA novel. I work three days a week and try to keep the rest of my time free to write. I'm working on another YA novel - which is looking like it'll turn into two books - called City of Thieves, which follows two brothers who find themselves drawn into a parallel world, a city that mirrors their own in some ways but is entirely different and strange in others. The mirror city is run on an economy of theft. Everyone steals from everybody else. Currently, I'm playing around with the structure, trying to find a form that will tell the story best. I usually work at home in my study. Sometimes, when I'm revising or redrafting, I'll play music, but mostly there's just the tap-tap of the keyboard and a lot of images whizzing around in my head - while between endless cups of tea - I try to capture them before they escape.
Things you didn't know about Malcolm Walker
- I've hitched a ride in a Roll-Royce Silver Shadow, a train in the Northern Territory and on top of a petrol tanker in Peru.
- I have a beautiful 10 year-old black Labrador, who likes her belly scratched and wishes she could open the fridge telepathically.
- I'm desperate to see the Socceroos, the Australian national soccer team, advance to the quarter-finals of the next World Cup in South Africa.
- My favourite colour is cobalt blue.
- My favourite YA novel is The Owl Service by Alan Garner, although anything by David Almond isn't far behind. My number one adult novel is Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker.
- As a kid, I dug what seemed like an enormous hole in our back garden looking for treasure. All I found was bits of coal, but it didn't stop me shovelling away.
- I've been ghost-watching but didn't see anything - much to my disappointment.
- I'd go up in the space shuttle at the drop of a hat if it was offered.
- As a kid I always wanted to be an explorer, oh, and play for Crystal Palace.
- I've had a six-foot Bronze Whaler shark sniffing at the end of my swim fins on a South Australian reef. At the time I thought how beautiful it was, how streamlined its design. It was when I could no longer see it that I got really scared.