An Elephant for the Emperor

About Saviour Pirotta

Saviour Pirotta is the best-selling author of over 100 children's books. Based in the UK, his work ranges from novelty titles for toddlers to short novels and collections of fairy tales.

Born on the small island of Malta, his parents named him after Jesus the Saviour. He has a brother called Joseph and two aunts called Mary. His father was a carpenter. With such a name, people expected him to grow up liking Bible stories but, influenced by his granny, Saviour preferred pirate and ghost stories, especially the gruesome kind that keep you awake at night.

Saviour grew up speaking three languages, English, Maltese and Italian.  The official language at school, however, was English and this is where he discovered the works of Rosemary Sutcliff and C. S. Lewis, which were to remain a big influence on him for the rest of his life.  He also liked fantasy films with lots of special effects, especially 'Jason and the Argonauts' and 'The Thief of Baghdad'. 

As a child he used to write poems, stories and plays which he performed with friends under a huge mulberry tree in a field. He sold his first work to a local radio station for five pounds and in 1982, he moved to England with the hope of becoming a professional writer. 

His first job in the UK was adapting and directing a play based on a Maltese folk tale. Needless to say, it featured pirates. After that he spent eight years working as a storyteller for the Commonwealth Institute in London, visiting schools and libraries around Britain. His first book, Let the Shadows Fly, was published in 1986. Since then he has  established himself as a versatile writer with many bestsellers to his record. He writes in English but his work has been translated into 28 languages to date. 

Saviour is now a British citizen and lives in the World Heritage Site of Saltaire in Yorkshire.

(Author photo and biography taken from the author's website. Click here to visit it and see more of his work).