Novelist. Books include "The War Zone" (1989, Doubleday), "Five And A Half Times Three" (1990, Hamish Hamilton, written with Ann Totterdell, about the death from cancer of their five-and-a-half-year-old son, Joe Buffalo), "Tribes" (1992, Doubleday), "Life On Mars" (1996, Doubleday) and the children's books, "Joe, Jo-Jo And The Monkey Masks" (1988, Andersen Press) and "Henry And The Sea" (1989, Puffin, written with Joe Buffalo Stuart).
Stuart's novel, The War Zone, was awarded the Whitbread Prize for Best
Novel in 1989, only to have the award withdrawn before the prize giving
ceremony amid controversy involving one dissenting judge.
Once my son was diagnosed with cancer, I had this huge amount of pain and anger about how this could happen to the child I loved so much. And I definitely directed that into The War Zone. I wrote it differently than anything I've written. I would rush back to the house while he was in chemotherapy and just write for two hours. I almost felt as if I were channeling it.
