The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a 2003 mystery novel by British writer Mark Haddon. Its title quotes the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes in Arthur Conan Doyle's 1892 short story "Silver Blaze". Haddon and The Curious Incident won the Whitbread Book Awards for Best Novel and Book of the Year, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book, and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. As a writer for The Guardian remarked, "Unusually, it was published simultaneously in separate editions for adults and children."

The novel is narrated in the first-person perspective by Christopher John Francis Boone, a 15-year-old boy who describes himself as "a mathematician with some behavioural difficulties" living in Swindon, Wiltshire. Although Christopher's condition is not stated, the book's blurb refers to Asperger syndrome, high-functioning autism, or savant syndrome. In July 2009, Haddon wrote on his blog that "Curious Incident is not a book about Asperger's....if anything it's a novel about difference, about being an outsider, about seeing the world in a surprising and revealing way. The book is not specifically about any specific disorder," and that he, Haddon, is not an expert on autism spectrum disorder or Asperger syndrome.

Mark Haddon

Mark Haddon (born 26 September 1962) is an English novelist, best known for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003). He won the Whitbread Award, Guardian Prize, and a Commonwealth Writers Prize for that work.

Life and work

Haddon was born on 26 September 1962 in Northampton, England. He was educated at Uppingham School and Merton College, Oxford, where he studied English.

In 1987, Haddon wrote his first children’s book, Gilbert’s Gobstopper. This was followed by many other children’s books, which were often self-illustrated.

Haddon is also known for his series of Agent Z books, one of which, Agent Z and the Penguin from Mars, was made into a 1996 Children's BBC sitcom. He also wrote the screenplay for the BBC television adaptation of Raymond Briggs's story Fungus the Bogeyman, screened on BBC1 in 2004. In 2007 he wrote the BBC television drama Coming Down the Mountain.

In 2003, Haddon won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award—in the Novels rather than Children's Books category—for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. He also won the Commonwealth Writers Prize in the Best First Book category, as The Curious Incident was considered his first written for adults; yet he also won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a once-in-a-lifetime award judged by a panel of children's writers.The Curious Incident is written from the perspective of a 15-year-old boy with Asperger syndrome. In an interview at Powells.com, Haddon claimed that this was the first book that he wrote intentionally for an adult audience; he was surprised when his publisher suggested marketing it to both adult and child audiences (it has been very successful with adults and children alike). His second adult novel, A Spot of Bother, was published in September 2006.

Incident

Incident may refer to:

See also

Curiosity

Curiosity (from Latin curiosus "careful, diligent, curious," akin to cura "care") is a quality related to inquisitive thinking such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident by observation in human and animal species. Curiosity is heavily associated with all aspects of human development, in which derives the process of learning and desire to acquire knowledge and skill.

The term "curiosity" can also be used to denote the behavior or emotion of being curious, in regards to the desire to gain knowledge or information. Curiosity as a behavior and emotion is attributed over millennium as the driving force behind not only human development, but developments in science, language, and industry.

Causes

Curiosity can be seen as an innate quality of many different species. It is common to human beings at all ages from infancy through adulthood, and is easy to observe in many other animal species; these include apes, cats, and rodents. Early definitions cite curiosity as a motivated desire for information. This motivational desire has been said to stem from a passion or an appetite for knowledge, information, and understanding.

Christopher

Christopher is the English version of a Europe-wide name derived from the Greek name Χριστόφορος (Christóforos). The constituent parts are Χριστός (Christós), "Christ" or "Anointed", and φέρειν (férein), "bear": the "Christ-bearer". It is related to the names Chris meaning "Anointed" and Christian meaning "follower of Christ" or "little Christ" (all from Greek.)

As a given, or first name, Christopher has been in use since the 10th century. In English, Christopher may be abbreviated as "Chris", and sometimes "Kit". Another less common abbreviation "Topher" or "Toph", has come into wider use in the U.S.

It was frequently the most popular male first name in the United Kingdom, having been in the top twenty in England and Wales from the 1940s until 1995, although it has since dropped out of the top 100. The name is most common in England and not so common in Wales, Scotland, or Ireland.

People with the name