Patrick Skene Catling | |
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![]() Skene Catling in February 2014 | |
Born | London, England | 14 February 1925
Occupation | Writer, journalist, book reviewer |
Nationality | British |
Education | Oberlin College |
Spouse | Susan Barnes Watson (1952–1960) Diane Wheeler Nicholson (1964–1984) |
Children | 4 |
Patrick Skene Catling (born 14 February 1925) [1] is a British journalist, author and book reviewer, best known for writing The Chocolate Touch in 1952. [2] He has written 12 novels, 3 works of nonfiction and 9 books for children.
Catling was born and schooled in London and was educated there and at Oberlin College in the United States. Catling served in the Royal Canadian Air Force as a navigator and as a journalist at The Baltimore Sun [3] and The Manchester Guardian .
He has traveled extensively. His present home is in the Republic of Ireland. [2] He continues writing books, and writes reviews for The Spectator , The Telegraph , and other publications. [4] [5]
His first publication of The Chocolate Touch in 1952 received enthusiastic responses from several reviewers. Catling has since written dozens of books, and has developed the popular The Chocolate Touch character John Midas into the children's book series: John Midas in the Dreamtime (1986), John Midas and the Vampires (1994), John Midas and the Radio Touch (1994), and John Midas and the Rock Star (1995). Of John Midas in the Dreamtime, School Library Journal wrote, "...children who have been dragged around tourist sights will relate to John's boredom". [6]
Dracula is a gothic horror novel by Bram Stoker, published on 26 May 1897. An epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist and opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking a business trip to stay at the castle of a Transylvanian nobleman, Count Dracula. Harker escapes the castle after discovering that Dracula is a vampire, and the Count moves to England and plagues the seaside town of Whitby. A small group, led by Abraham Van Helsing, investigate, hunt and kill Dracula.
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The Chocolate Touch is a children's book by Patrick Skene Catling, first published in the US in 1957. John Midas is delighted when, through a magical gift, everything his lips touch turns into chocolate. The story is patterned after the myth of King Midas, whose magic turned everything he touched into gold. The original illustrations were by Mildred Coughlin McNutt, but another edition in the same year, a "newly illustrated" edition, had illustrations by Margot Apple and more pages.
The City & the City is a novel by British author China Miéville that follows a wide-reaching murder investigation in two cities that exist side by side, each of whose citizens are forbidden to go into or acknowledge the other city, combining weird fiction with the police procedural. It was written as a gift for Miéville's terminally ill mother, who was a fan of the latter genre. The novel was published by Macmillan on 15 May 2009.
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Patrick Skene Catling.
Patrick Skene Catling.