Horrible Science writer wins top award

Nick Arnold the author for the Horrible Science books and Director of the Appledore Book Festival has won Britain’s top award for science writing. The award was announced at a reception at London Zoo on Tuesday 15 June.

The Prize was given to Nick Arnold’s book Wasted World which takes a funny yet serious look at the problems of pollution and global warming has been awarded the prestigious Thomson Reuters Record Award for Communicating Science. He is the first children’s author ever to have won the coveted award. The Prize awarded by the Zoological Society of London is for the most outstanding communication of zoology (the science of animals) for a general audience. The annual award recognises works that have had an outstanding influence on a general audience in terms of their accessibility, novelty and innovation. The award can be made to writers or film-makers and previous winners include geneticist Steve Jones, and TV film-makers, Simon King and Armand Lerol. Nick Arnold said: “For a Science writer , the Thomson Reuters ZSL Award is the World Cup and I am honoured and thrilled to have won it. I believe that the future of the world’s wildlife is in danger and it is brilliant that the judges have recognised the importance of children’s science books in shaping the responses of the next generation. I am also flattered and delighted that a book written for a younger audience can delight and inform adults too. As far as I am concerned this award is not just for me but for my Horrible Science illustrator Tony De Saulles and for my publishers Scholastic.” The Zoological Society of London was established in 1826 and is Britain’s leading scientific society in Zoological research. They are the organisation behind London and Whipsnade Zoos. Birmingham Stage Company, producers of six hugely popular Horrible Histories shows, will be touring an exciting new production based on the popular Horrible Science books by Nick Arnold illustrated by Tony De Saulles, and it comes to the Grand Opera House York for the first time this September. These books have sold over 10 million copies in 38 different languages world wide and won such important scientific awards as the Rhone-Poulenc Prize in 1997 and the Aventis Prize in 2004. Using actors and some amazing 3D Bogglevision special effects, BSC’s new incredibly squishy Horrible Science show, adapted for the stage by Mark Williams, attempts to find the awful answers to such important questions as: why do we produce 50,000 litres of spit in a lifetime – enough to fill 100 baths? Can you fight deadly diseases and beastly bacteria just using orange juice? Can you survive the Bathroom of Doom and the Toothbrush of Terror - when in just a few hours one bacterium can produce 100 million copies of itself to infect your towel, flannel, toothbrush and even your hands! The audience will join Billy Miller, a recalcitrant 10-year-old, as he battles his way through the Horrible Science World, facing dreadful dangers and putrid puns! They’ll encounter fatal forces such as gravity and magnetism; discover the shocking truth about electricity, how bacteria and microbe monsters inflict their killer diseases and how the different parts of the body fit together. Horrible Science is directed by Phil Clark with designs by Jacqueline Trousdale and a cast including: Laura Dalgleish, Benedict Martin and Gareth Warren. Horrible Science is suitable for all the family aged 6+ and covers much of the science curriculum that Key Stage 2 children have to learn but deals with these topics in such unusual and hilariously disgusting ways as to seem a million miles from the classroom! Both those who already enjoy the subject and also the confirmed science haters will all find Horrible Science is unlike any theatre production they have ever seen before – a hugely fun way to learn important new things! This astounding show will thrill you and your children – you’ll be laughing & groaning, gasping at the special effects that seem to send giant bacteria and disgusting blobby things straight at your head, while all the time you’ll be painlessly learning many more scientific facts than you knew before! HORRIBLE SCIENCE – science with all the squishy, disgusting & explosive bits left in! To book call box office on 0844 847 2322 or go online at www.grandoperahouseyork.org.uk Performances: Tue 7pm, Wed & Thu 10.30am & 1.30pm, Fri 7.00pm, Sat 2.30pm & 7.00pm Tickets: £11.50, £13.50, £15.50 For more information on the production see www.birminghamstage.com For photos, competitions and interviews please call Celestine Dubruel, Press Officer, on 01904 678711 or email: celestinedubruel@theambassadors.com Nick Arnold is also available for interviews.