Bernard Ashley (author)

Last updated

Bernard Ashley
BornBernard John Ashley
April 1935 (age 88)
Woolwich, London, U.K.
OccupationTeacher and author of children's books
LanguageEnglish
EducationTrained as a teacher at Trent Park College of Education
GenreChildren's fiction
Website
bernardashley.com

Bernard John Ashley (born April 1935) [1] is a British author of books for children and young adults. His debut novel, The Trouble with Donovan Croft, published in 1974, won "The Other Award", an alternative to the Carnegie Medal. [2] A Kind of Wild Justice (1978), Running Scared (1986), and Little Soldier (1999) were commended runners up for the Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book. [3] [lower-alpha 1] The first two have been reissued by OUP in their Children's Modern Classics series, the third re-issued in a 15th anniversary edition. Ashley's TV drama Dodgem (based on his own novel) won the Royal Television Society Award for Best Entertainment programme (BBC) in 1993.

Contents

Biography

Born in Woolwich, south London, [4] Ashley trained as a teacher at Trent Park College of Education after his National Service in the RAF. [5] His teaching career included thirty years as headteacher, [5] his most recent schools being in south and east London, experience which gave the setting for many of his stories. [4] He has recently been awarded an honorary Doctorate in Education by the University of Greenwich and an honorary Doctorate in Letters by the University of Leicester.

In the early sixties, Ashley completed an account of the lifeboat service for children, The Men and the Boats, first in the Serving Our Society series published by Allman & Son. [6] Another in the SOS series was his Weather Men (1971), about the meteorological service.

He is now working full-time as a writer. His children's books present a gritty realism that children identify with, which provides a context for empathy and compassion for the underdog, and a desire for decency, justice and morality. [5] They are often set in urban environments plagued by poverty and crime. Some are set in wartime, including his 24th full-length novel for young people, Shadow of the Zeppelin (2014), and his 25th, Dead End Kids (2015). His latest novel is "Does She Dare?' (Troika 2017) set in 1911 featuring a young feminist hero.

Selected works

also published as Justin and the Grandad War (2009) – ISBN   978-1-85714-403-1

Picture books

Notes

  1. Today there are usually eight books on the Carnegie shortlist. According to CCSU some runners up through 2002 were Commended (from 1954) or Highly Commended (from 1966). There were about 160 commendations of both kinds in 49 years including three for 1978 and four for 1986 (one highly commended).

Related Research Articles

The Carnegie Medal is a British literary award that annually recognises one outstanding new English-language book for children or young adults. It is conferred upon the author by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP). CILIP calls it "the UK's oldest and most prestigious book award for children's writing".

Anne Fine OBE FRSL is an English writer. Although best known for children's books, she also writes for adults. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and she was appointed an OBE in 2003.

<i>Elidor</i> Novel by Alan Garner

Elidor is a children's fantasy novel by the British author Alan Garner, published by Collins in 1965. Set primarily in modern Manchester, it features four English children who enter a fantasy world, fulfill a quest there, and return to find that the enemy has followed them into our world. Translations have been published in nine languages and it has been adapted for television and radio.

William James Carter Mayne was an English writer of children's fiction. The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature calls him one of the outstanding children's authors of the 20th century and The Times Literary Supplement reportedly called him "the most original good writer for young people in our time". In 2004, he was convicted of sexual abuse of young readers and received a jail sentence.

Antonia Forest was the pseudonym of Patricia Giulia Caulfield Kate Rubinstein, an English writer of children's novels. She is known for the Marlow series.

Peter Malcolm de Brissac Dickinson OBE FRSL was an English author and poet, best known for children's books and detective stories.

Ann Philippa Pearce OBE FRSL was an English author of children's books. Best known of them is the time-slip novel Tom's Midnight Garden, which won the 1958 Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, as the year's outstanding children's book by a British subject. Pearce was a commended runner-up for the Medal a further four times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geraldine McCaughrean</span> British childrens novelist (born 1951)

Geraldine McCaughrean is a British children's novelist. She has written more than 170 books, including Peter Pan in Scarlet (2004), the official sequel to Peter Pan commissioned by Great Ormond Street Hospital, the holder of Peter Pan's copyright. Her work has been translated into 44 languages worldwide. She has received the Carnegie Medal twice and the Michael L. Printz Award among others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malorie Blackman</span> British writer

Malorie Blackman is a British writer who held the position of Children's Laureate from 2013 to 2015. She primarily writes literature and television drama for children and young adults. She has used science fiction to explore social and ethical issues. Her critically and popularly acclaimed Noughts and Crosses series uses the setting of a fictional dystopia to explore racism. Blackman has been the recipient of many honours for her work including, most recently, the 2022 PEN Pinter Prize.

Gillian Cross is a British author of children's books. She won the 1990 Carnegie Medal for Wolf and the 1992 Whitbread Children's Book Award for The Great Elephant Chase. She also wrote The Demon Headmaster book series, which was later turned into a television series by the BBC in January 1996; a sequel series was produced in 2019.

Melvin Burgess is a British writer of children's fiction. He became famous in 1996 with the publication of Junk, about heroin-addicted teenagers on the streets of Bristol. In Britain, Junk became one of the best-known young adult books of the decade. Burgess won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British author. For the 10th anniversary in 2007 it was named one of the top ten Medal-winning works, selected by a panel to compose the ballot for a public election of the all-time favourite.

Jan Mark was a British writer best known for children's books. In all she wrote over fifty novels and plays and many anthologised short stories. She won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject, both for Thunder and Lightnings (1976) and for Handles (1983). She was also a "Highly Commended" runner up for Nothing To Be Afraid Of (1980). In addition, she has won the Carnegie Medal twice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sharon Creech</span> American writer of childrens novels

Sharon Creech is an American writer of children's novels. She was the first American winner of the Carnegie Medal for British children's books and the first person to win both the American Newbery Medal and the British Carnegie.

Robert Atkinson Westall was an English author and teacher known for fiction aimed at children and young people. Some of the latter cover complex, dark, and adult themes. He has been called "the dean of British war novelists". His first book, The Machine Gunners, won the 1975 Carnegie Medal for the year's outstanding children's book by a British subject. It was named among the top ten Medal-winners at the 70th anniversary celebration in 2007. Westall also won a second Carnegie, a Smarties Prize, and the once-in-a-lifetime Guardian Prize.

Michael Foreman is a British author and illustrator, one of the best-known and most prolific creators of children's books. He won the 1982 and 1989 Kate Greenaway Medals for British children's book illustration and he was a commended runner-up five times.

<i>The Ghost Behind the Wall</i>

The Ghost Behind The Wall is a supernatural fiction novel for young adults by the British author Melvin Burgess, published by Andersen Press in 2000 (ISBN 0862644925). Set in London, it features a boy who pretends to be a ghost in the ventilation system of his home apartment building and discovers a real ghost.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pat Hutchins</span> English childrens writer and illustrator

Patricia Evelyn Hutchins was an English illustrator, writer of children's books, and broadcaster. She won the 1974 Kate Greenaway Medal from the Library Association for her book The Wind Blew. On screen, she was best known as 'Loopy-Lobes' the second owner of the "Ragdoll boat" in the long-running children's series Rosie and Jim.

The Kurt Maschler Award was a British literary award that annually recognised one "work of imagination for children, in which text and illustration are integrated so that each enhances and balances the other." Winning authors and illustrators received £1000 and a bronze figurine called the "Emil".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Carter (author)</span> British writer of childrens books (1929–1999)

Peter Carter was a British writer of children's books, primarily historical novels. He won several awards: the Guardian Prize, two Young Observer Prizes, and the German Preis der Leseratten. His books were shortlisted for many more prizes, and were translated into at least six languages, from Japanese to Portuguese.

Lesley Howarth is a British author of children's and young adult fiction. For the novel Maphead, published by Walker Books in 1994, she won the annual Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a once-in-a-lifetime book award judged by a panel of British children's writers, and she was a runner-up for the Carnegie Medal.

References

  1. "Bernard John Ashley - Director Information (UK)". site2corp.com. Archived from the original on 24 December 2016. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  2. 1 2 Bernard Ashley (June 2002). A Kind of Wild Justice. Oxford University Press. p. 3. ISBN   978-0-19-271889-1 . Retrieved 29 July 2012.
  3. "Carnegie Medal Award". 2007(?). Curriculum Lab. Elihu Burritt Library. Central Connecticut State University (CCSU). Retrieved 25 August 2012.
  4. 1 2 Bernard Ashley (3 March 2011). Little Soldier. Hachette Children's Books. p. 180. ISBN   978-1-4083-1526-2 . Retrieved 29 July 2012.
  5. 1 2 3 "Bernard Ashley". amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 29 July 2012.
  6. 1 2 "The men and the boats; Britain's life-boat service". Library of Congress Catalog Record. Retrieved 25 August 2012.