Peters Teen Fiction Book of the Year, Northern Soul: Q&A with Phil Earle

July 14th 2025

Our final author in the awards spotlight is Phil Earle, the winner of the Peters Teen Fiction Book of the Year 2025 for Northern Soul. A sweet and tender tale of unrequited love sprinkled with fabulous humour, this dyslexia-friendly, light-hearted read captured the hearts of teachers and librarians - and their vote!

Phil joins us for the last instalment of our award interview series. We hear from Phil about his embarrassing memories of first love, the power of music and the arts for teen expression, and his upcoming new releases.

Phil Earle | Author Phil Earle was born and raised in Hull. Before his career in children's bookselling and publishing, Phil previously worked as a care worker in a children's home as well as a drama therapist for traumatized and abused adolescents. His novel When the Sky Falls was shortlisted for the Yoto Carnegie Medal and won the 2022 British Book Award for Children's Fiction Book of the Year, as well as the Books Are My Bag Readers Award and the Times Children's Book of the Year. Phil now lives on a hill in West Yorkshire with his wife, children, two dogs and a dragon called Baz. DISCOVER BOOKS BY PHIL EARLE

Congratulations on Northern Soul being voted as Peters Teen Fiction Book of the Year! How does it feel to be chosen by teachers, school librarians and public librarians from across the UK?

Feels wonderful. There is nothing more powerful than someone liking your book enough to put it in the hands of someone else and saying, ‘give this a try’. Teachers and librarians have made a phenomenal difference to my writing life through their generosity and passion.

It’s refreshing to read a story from a guy’s perspective on healthy first crushes and those embarrassing but ultimately lovely feelings. Why did you want to write about Marv’s first love?

I’d like to say that Marv’s mishaps are entirely fictional, but sadly, there’s a lot of me in there. I was awkward and tongue-tied and clumsy when it came to love generally, never mind just first love. The song Marv sings to Carly outside the bakers? I wrote it when I was fourteen…the horror.

What songs would you include in the music playlist of Northern Soul, for readers (teachers and students!) to listen to?

Ah, classic Atlantic, Motown and Stax soul. Otis obviously, Wilson Pickett, Solomon Burke, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Jnr Walker and the All Stars.

I really love the song ‘Come on Train’ by Don Thomas – it’s a proper northern soul stomper.

In your opinion, in what ways are music and books (and the creative arts in general) important to teens’ development into young adulthood?

Fundamentally, they can make you feel like you’re not on your own. For me, being a teen was when I started to realise my actions had implications, and that was scary. Songs, poems, stories... they give you the opportunity to realise you aren’t on your own. There’s solace in that.

And how can we – as teachers, librarians, etc – support teens in finding those outlets and engaging them with reading or creativity?

Just by letting them find stories through a rich, wide range of stories. It doesn’t have to be a novel.

The perfect pop song is said to be three minutes long. But a true artist can tell someone's life story in those 180 seconds…

What are you working on at the moment? (and when can we read or see it!)

Always writing! Currently on draft one of a WW1 novel called All the Wonders of the World, about circuses and elephants and brothers and cowardice.

But I’m also writing three books about a young man which are very much in the vein of Northern Soul. Finn’s Epic Fails publishes in Feb 2026 and I’m very excited about it…

Northern Soul Up until now, Marv's uneventful life has revolved around playing football with his best mate, Jimmy. But things take a turn for the dramatic with the arrival at school of new girl Carly Stonehouse. Marv falls in love at first sight, but there's no way a girl like Carly will ever look at him. Unless, perhaps, he enlists help from a very unusual source. Follow Marv on his hilariously agonising quest for love, featuring his Croc-loving dad, a fast-food addicted musical idol from the past and some of the most cringeworthy song lyrics you might ever have heard... You pay £5.91           RRP £7.99 Save 26% DISCOVER

Thank you for joining us on our Peters Children's Book of the Year 2025 interview series! If you missed our previous interviews, you can view all the blogs here. Stay tuned in Autumn 2025, for news about Peters Children's Book of the Year 2026...

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