The 2009 Carnegie Medal was Siobhan Dowd for her book, Bog child. The Medal was awarded posthumously as Siobhan sadly died in Oxford on 21 August 2007, following an illness. She wrote a number of books for children including The London Eye mystery and A swift pure cry.
Siobhan was born to Irish parents and grew up in London. She attended a school in south London and gained a degree in Classics at Oxford University.
A swift pure cry was Siobhan's first novel. Based in Ireland in 1984, this tells the story of Shell, who must look after the family when her mother dies. Her only release from the harshness of everyday life comes from her friendship with childhood friend, Declan. When Declan suddenly leaves Ireland to seek his fortune in America, Shell finds herself pregnant and the centre of a scandal that rocks the small community in which she lives.
Her second novel was The London Eye mystery which appeared in 2007 and Bog child which was published in 2008.
In Bog child Fergus finds the body of a child whilst digging for peat in the mountain with his Uncle Tally. It looks like she has been murdered. As he tries to make sense of the mad world around him - his brother on hunger-strike in prison, his growing feelings for Cora, his parents arguing over the Troubles, and being blackmailed into acting as courier to God knows what, a little voice comes to him in his dreams, and the mystery of the bog child unfurls.