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Joseph Delaney

Born

in Preston, Lancashire, England, The United Kingdom

July 25, 1945

Died

August 16, 2022

Genre

Young Adult, Fantasy, Science Fiction & Fantasy

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Joseph Delaney was a full time writer living in Lancashire, in the heart of Boggart territory.

He was the author of Wardstone Chronicles, Starblade Chronicles, Arena 13, Aberrations and a new book came out in April 2020, Brother Wulf. This is a new spooks story featuring Tom and Alice, but introducing a new character, a young monk called Brother Wulf.

He first got the idea for the Spooks series when he moved to the village where he lives now and discovered there was a local boggart - ‘a man like me needs boggarts around’. He made a note in his notebook ‘a story about a man who hunts boggarts’ and years later when he had to come up with an idea at short notice developed this into ‘The Spook’s Apprentice’, the first book in the series.

He conti Joseph Delaney was a full time writer living in Lancashire, in the heart of Boggart territory.

He was the author of Wardstone Chronicles, Starblade Chronicles, Arena 13, Aberrations and a new book came out in April 2020, Brother Wulf. This is a new spooks story featuring Tom and Alice, but introducing a new character, a young monk called Brother Wulf.

He first got the idea for the Spooks series when he moved to the village where he lives now and discovered there was a local boggart - ‘a man like me needs boggarts around’. He made a note in his notebook ‘a story about a man who hunts boggarts’ and years later when he had to come up with an idea at short notice developed this into ‘The Spook’s Apprentice’, the first book in the series.

He continued to draw upon the folklore of Lancashire and has acquired much local knowledge over the years which he tweaks and modifies to create his fictional world. Another source of inspiration has been Lancashire's varied and atmospheric landscape. Many of the locations in the County are based on actual places in Lancashire.

In the early days of his writing career Joseph worked as a teacher at a Sixth Form College: his subjects were English, Film and Media Studies. He used to get up early and write every morning before work. That way he could write a book a year – which promptly got rejected! When the Americans bought the series he decided to give up teaching and write full time.

Prior to teaching he worked as an engineer in his twenties, completing an apprenticeship just like Tom Ward in the spook’s books.

Joseph described his method of writing as a process of discovery. He didn’t plot too far ahead and often didn’t know what is going to happen until he writes it down. In other words he made it up as he went along. He prefed writing dialogue to description, in which he said he is a minimalist and leaves much to the reader’s imagination.
Joseph had three children and nine grandchildren and was a wonderful public speaker available for conference, library and bookshop events.

The Spook's Apprentice, The Spook's Curse and The Spook's Secret have all been shortlisted for the Lancashire children's Book for the Year Award. The Spook's Apprentice is the winner of both the Sefton Book Award and the Hampshire Book Award.
www.josephdelaneyauthor.com

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Joseph Delaney’s books

Average rating: 4.14 · 292,874 ratings · 14,169 reviews · 59 distinct works • Similar authors

	Revenge of the Witch (The Last Apprentice / Wardstone Chronicles, #1) 4.02 avg rating — 55,211 ratings — published 2004 — 127 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Curse of the Bane (The Last Apprentice / Wardstone Chronicles, #2) by Joseph Delaney, Patrick Arrasmith (Illustrator) 4.13 avg rating — 33,368 ratings — published 2005 — 88 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Night of the Soul Stealer (The Last Apprentice / Wardstone Chronicles, #3) by Joseph Delaney, Patrick Arrasmith (Illustrator ) 4.14 avg rating — 32,292 ratings — published 2007 — 91 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Attack of the Fiend (The Last Apprentice / Wardstone Chronicles, #4) by Joseph Delaney, Patrick Arrasmith (Illustrations) 4.21 avg rating — 25,455 ratings — published 2007 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Spook's Mistake (The Last Apprentice / Wardstone Chronicles, #5) 4.22 avg rating — 19,073 ratings — published 2008 — 70 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Spook's Sacrifice (The Last Apprentice / Wardstone Chronicles, #6) 4.20 avg rating — 16,951 ratings — published 2008 — 24 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Rage of the Fallen (The Last Apprentice / Wardstone Chronicles, #8) by Joseph Delaney, Patrick Arrasmith (Illustrator) 4.25 avg rating — 15,704 ratings — published 2011 — 18 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Rise of the Huntress (The Last Apprentice / Wardstone Chronicles, #7) 4.18 avg rating — 15,722 ratings — published 2010 — 60 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	I Am Grimalkin (The Last Apprentice / Wardstone Chronicles, #9) 4.26 avg rating — 10,918 ratings — published 2011 — 56 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Spook's Blood (The Last Apprentice / Wardstone Chronicles, #10) 4.23 avg rating — 9,841 ratings — published 2012 — 54 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Joseph Delaney…

Series by Joseph Delaney

The Last Apprentice / Wardstone Chronicles (13 books)
by

Joseph Delaney,

Patrick Arrasmith (Illustrator)

4.14 avg rating — 274,722 ratings

The Starblade Chronicles (3 books)
by

Joseph Delaney

4.13 avg rating — 10,435 ratings

Arena 13 Trilogy (3 books)
by

Joseph Delaney

4.06 avg rating — 2,601 ratings

The Spook's Apprentice: Brother Wulf (4 books)
by

Joseph Delaney

4.26 avg rating — 1,763 ratings

Aberrations (2 books)
by

Joseph Delaney

4.18 avg rating — 1,057 ratings

More series by Joseph Delaney…

Quotes by Joseph Delaney (?)

“Now it's the dark's turn to be afraid.”
― Joseph Delaney, Curse of the Bane

tags: afraid, apprentice, dark, delaney, last-apprentice, tom-ward

161 likes

“You can't just be reading books all the time and leave the writting of them to others.”
― Joseph Delaney, Night of the Soul Stealer

tags: reading, studying, writting

121 likes

“The first step towards knowledge is to accept your own ignorance.”
― Joseph Delaney, Curse of the Bane

tags: the-spook-s-curse, wardstone-chronicles

112 likes

See all Joseph Delaney's quotes »

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