Gillian Cross | |
|---|---|
| Born | Gillian Clare Arnold December 24, 1945 |
| Occupation | author |
| Nationality | British |
| Education |
|
| Genre | children's books |
| Notable works |
|
| Notable awards | Carnegie Medal (1990) |
| Spouse | Martin Cross (m. 1967) |
| Children | 4 |
Gillian Claire Cross (born December 24, 1945) [1] 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.
Gillian Clare Arnold was born in London on 24 December 1945 to James Eric and Joan Emma Arnold. [2] As a girl, she attended the North London Collegiate School. She married Martin Cross on May 10, 1967. [1]
Later, she received a Bachelor of Arts with first-class honours from Somerville College, Oxford in 1969, and a Master of Arts from the same university in 1972. [2] In 1974, she received a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Sussex. [2]
Cross and her husband had four children. [1]
Before becoming a full-time writer, Cross held several different jobs, including acting as an assistant to a Member of Parliament.
In 1979, she published her first book, The Runaway. Three years later, she inaugurated The Demon Headmaster series of eight books (1982 to 2019). The same year, she also completed The Dark Behind the Curtain, a horror story illustrated by David Parkins and published by Oxford University Press. [3] It was highly commended for the 1982 Carnegie Medal [4] [a] from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject. A Map of Nowhere, published in 1988, was highly commended for the 1988 Carnegie. [4] [a] Two years later, she won the Medal two years later for Wolf, [5] which was also runner-up for the 1991 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.[ citation needed ]
In early 2014, she became a patron for the Leamington Spa-based charity Cord, after their work in Sudan inspired her latest novel, After Tomorrow. [6]
In the 2024 Dorset Council election, Gillian Cross contested Beacon ward as a Labour Party candidate. [7]
 |
Three of Cross's books are Junior Library Guild selections: The Great American Elephant Chase (1995), [8] New World (1995), [9] and Pictures in the Dark (1997). [10]
In 1987, The Horn Book Magazine has included two of Cross's books on their list of the best fiction of the year: Roscoe’s Leap (1987) and The Great American Elephant Chase (1993). [11]
Kathleen Wendy Herald Peyton, who wrote primarily as K. M. Peyton, was a British author of fiction for children and young adults in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Carnegie Medal for Writing, established in 1936 as the Carnegie Medal, is an annual British literary award for English-language books for children or young adults. It is conferred upon the author by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), who in 2016 called it "the UK's oldest and most prestigious book award for children's writing".
Anne Fine 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.
Rosemary Sutcliff was an English novelist best known for children's books, especially historical fiction and retellings of myths and legends. Although she was primarily a children's author, some of her novels were specifically written for adults. In a 1986 interview she said, "I would claim that my books are for children of all ages, from nine to ninety."
Helen Cresswell was an English television scriptwriter and author of more than 100 children's books, best known for comedy and supernatural fiction. Her most popular book series, Lizzie Dripping and The Bagthorpe Saga, were also the basis for television series.
The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize or Guardian Award was a literary award that annual recognised one fiction book written for children or young adults and published in the United Kingdom. It was conferred upon the author of the book by The Guardian newspaper, which established it in 1965 and inaugurated it in 1967. It was a lifetime award in that previous winners were not eligible. At least from 2000 the prize was £1,500. The prize was apparently discontinued after 2016, though no formal announcement appears to have been made.
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.
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.
Green Knowe is a series of six children's novels written by Lucy M. Boston, illustrated by her son Peter Boston, and published from 1954 to 1976. It features a very old house, Green Knowe, based on Boston's home at the time, The Manor in Hemingford Grey, Huntingdonshire, England. In the novels she brings to life the people she imagines might have lived there.
The Demon Headmaster is a series of books by Gillian Cross which were later adapted as a television series starring Terrence Hardiman in the title role and Frances Amey as Dinah.
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.
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.
Wolf is a young-adult novel by Gillian Cross, published by Oxford in 1990. Set in London, it features communal living, terrorism, and wolves and a teenage girl in relation to her mother, father, and paternal grandmother.
Gillian Elise Avery was a British children's novelist, and a historian of childhood education and children's literature. She won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 1972 for A Likely Lad. It was adapted for television in 1990.
Jan Thomas is an American writer and illustrator of children's books. She lives in Socorro, New Mexico and has published three books with Harcourt Trade Publishers: What Will Fat Cat Sit On?, A Birthday for Cow, and The Doghouse; and three with Simon & Schuster's new children's imprint, Beach Lane Books, Can You Make a Scary Face?, Rhyming Dust Bunnies, Here Comes the Big Mean Dust Bunny!, and in September 2011, Is Everyone Ready for Fun?.
Ann Schlee FRSL was an English novelist. She won the annual Guardian Children's Fiction Prize for The Vandal (1979), a book award judged by a panel of British children's writers. She was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1997.
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.
Peter Brown is an American writer and illustrator who is best known for children's picture books. He won a Caldecott Honor in 2013 for his illustration of Creepy Carrots!
