20-05-2025
Aidan Chambers obituary: pioneer of the young adult novel
Travelling to London by train in 1968, practically penniless and wearing a jacket over his monk's habit, Aidan Chambers would not have looked an obvious choice for someone about to launch a revolution in teenage reading. Yet by the end of that day he had persuaded Macmillan to invest in Topliners, a new imprint aimed at the previously neglected market of young adult readers.
It had generally been assumed that adolescents keen on reading would eventually pass from children's books straight to the uplands of adult literature. Chambers, a teacher-librarian at a secondary modern school, knew that his pupils from non-bookish homes also wanted topical, affordable fiction focusing on the teenage years. But such could not be found in the somewhat cosy, largely middle-class world
