Saviour Pirotta

Saviour Pirotta
Saviour Pirotta, children's author, during a school Book Week visit
Born	1958 Malta
Occupation	author
Nationality	British
Genre	Children's picture books, poetry, Greek myth, fiction, non-fiction
Notable works	The Orchard Book of First Greek Myths
Years active	1986 - present
Website
spirotta.com

Saviour Pirotta (born 1958, Naxxar, Malta) is a Maltese born British children's book author.

The second of five brothers, Pirotta grew up speaking both English and Maltese. His father, Anthony, is a retired joiner and his mother, née Cini, is a home maker. He attended Naxxar Primary School and later won a scholarship to St Aloysius' College, one of the most prestigious schools on the island. He developed a love of literature early on in life when he discovered the works of Maltese folklorist Manuel Magri, the Narnia books by C.S. Lewis, Ian Serraillier's The Silver Sword and a children's adventure story by local author Guze Galea called Ragel Bil-Ghaqal (A Serious Man). His first short novel, The Pirates of Pudding Beach, paid tribute to it. The author's parents, both extremely devout Catholics, discouraged his interest in the arts and censored most television programmes. The family did watch Italian television series, however, and the RAI adaptations of Emilio Salgari's novels about the Asian pirate Sandokan made a big impression on the young Pirotta, as did frequent reruns of neorealist classics, in particular Vittorio De Sica's Shoeshine and Miracle in Milan. Pirotta also cites as visual influences the works of legendary film animator Ray Harryhausen and Alexander Korda, who produced the 1940 fantasy film The Thief of Baghdad, starring the South Asian actor Sabu. Rare visits to the cinema to watch Biblical epics like Ben Hur and The Ten Commandments were also to prove of lasting influence, which later led to an interest in the sword and sandal genre of movies and historical novels, especially the works of Rosemary Sutcliff.