Creativity Engine

Write with the SevenStories Archive

Generation

Tony Mitton

Excelling in English at school, Tony wrote creatively from the age of 9, keeping journals of his finished poems from his mid-teens throughout his adult life. It was the birth of his children, however, that led him into the field of children's literature, as he frequently adapted existing stories or wrote original pieces for them. These pieces ultimately convinced him to submit his work for publishing. Initially rejected by publishers, Tony began sending his work to anthologists and became widely published in poetry collections, leading to the publication of his first collection Plum in 1998. Tony eventually gave up teaching part time to become a full-time author in his late 40s, and since then has won several awards for his collections of poetry and verse picture books, including the Nestle Smarties Book Prize for The Red & White Spotted Handkerchief (2000), and the prestigious Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) poetry award for Wayland (2013), illustrated by John Lawrence.

Tony passed away in June 2022

Selected bibliography

A photo of

From the archive

An opening from one of Toni Mitton's notebooks.

Notebook

Call Number: TMi-2-11-12

A photocopy of a manuscript poem draft in a notebook.

Photocopy of a manuscript draft

Call Number: TMi-2-11-6

Printer's proof of a story, including manuscript annotations in pencil and red ink.

Printer's proof

Call Number: TMi-2-11-6

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