Patrick Ness

Patrick Ness (born Patrick Excelsior Ness in Virginia on 17 October 1971^[1]) was creator, executive producer and sole TV writer of the Doctor Who spin-off series Class. Additionally, he wrote the Puffin eshort Tip of the Tongue.

Biography[[edit] | [edit source]]

Early life[[edit] | [edit source]]

Patrick went to high school in Washington, and later studied English Literature at the University of Southern California. Though he initially started as a corporate writer, he branched out into the world of creative writing with his first novel, The Crash of Hennington in 2003. This was then followed in 2004 by his short story compilation Topics About Which I Know Nothing. After this, he spent three years teaching Creative Writing at Oxford University. Through 2011 and 2012, he was also a book reviewer for The Guardian.

Young adult writing career[[edit] | [edit source]]

His first Young Adult novel, and opening part of the Chaos Walking trilogy, The Knife of Never Letting Go was released to notable public appreciation amongst young adults, including winning the Guardian's Children's Fiction Prize.^[2] It, and the other two books in the trilogy, would win several awards & also be shortlisted for the prestigious Carnegie Medal.

Patrick would later win the Carnegie Medal twice for his books, Monsters of Men and A Monster Calls.^[3]^[4] This is a feat that has only accomplished by seven other writers in the award's 94-year-long history - and as of 2022, he is one of only people to have won the award in two consecutive years.^[5] He has since been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal another three times - in 2015^[6], 2016^[7] and 2018^[8].

Contributions to the DWU[[edit] | [edit source]]

Patrick Ness' first contribution to the DWU was the Puffin eshort Tip of the Tongue, a Fifth Doctor short story to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who.

In 2015, Patrick was approached by Brian Minchin and Steven Moffat about writing a spin-off for Doctor Who. After some discussions in which Minchin outlined the ideas they had, Patrick came back to them with his own ideas. These ideas would, over time, develop into Class.

Patrick was the sole writer on the first series of Class, though it has been indicated by several parties that he would've opened up to guest-writers had there been a second series.

He indicated his departure from working on Class in June 2017 (before the show's cancellation in September 2017).

Post-Who career[[edit] | [edit source]]

Since his departure, he has gone on to write more YA fiction including And The Ocean Was Our Sky, and is currently writing scripts for several upcoming films. He continues to look over scripts written for Class: The Audio Adventures, and is given a creator credit on all of the audio releases.