The Ghost of Thomas Kempe

Last updated

The Ghost of Thomas Kempe
TheGhostOfThomasKempe.jpg
First edition
Author Penelope Lively
IllustratorAnthony Maitland
LanguageEnglish
Genre Children's fantasy novel, supernatural fiction
Publisher Heinemann (UK)
E. P. Dutton (US)
Publication date
26 March 1973
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (hardcover & paperback)
Pages156 pp (first edition)
ISBN 0-434-94894-2 (US)
OCLC 673929
LC Class PZ7.L7397 Gh [1]

The Ghost of Thomas Kempe is a low fantasy novel for children by Penelope Lively, first published by Heinemann in 1973 with illustrations by Anthony Maitland. Set in present-day Oxfordshire, it features a boy and his modern family who are new in their English village, and seem beset by a poltergeist. Soon the boy makes acquaintance with the eponymous Thomas Kempe, ghost of a 17th-century resident sorcerer who intends to stay.

Contents

Lively won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject. [2] [lower-alpha 1]

Characters

Major characters
Minor characters

Themes

An interest in history, the passage of time and local change is a running theme in the work of Penelope Lively and can be seen in many of her books. Beside Mr Kempe from the 17th century, this story involves both a 20th-century resident of the cottage and the history of the surrounding countryside.

Adaptations

In 1978, a film was made based on the novel, which aired on the ABC Weekend Special , a showcase for a variety of different films aimed at children. The film was re-broadcast many times over the years, and has had several releases on home video, and is currently hosted on YouTube. The book was also read on BBC's Jackanory . In 1977, a radio play version was aired over a number of weeks on Australia's ABC radio. In 1978 the book was adapted as a radio play by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation.

Notes

  1. Penelope Lively also won the 1987 Booker Prize, recognising Moon Tiger as the year's best novel. She is the only author to win both of the most prestigious British book awards, which have covered books for children from 1937 and novels for adults from 1968. Nationality conditions have varied.

Related Research Articles

<i>Oliver Twist</i> 1837–1839 novel by Charles Dickens

Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress, is the second novel by English author Charles Dickens. It was originally published as a serial from 1837 to 1839 and as a three-volume book in 1838. The story follows the titular orphan, who, after being raised in a workhouse, escapes to London, where he meets a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the elderly criminal Fagin, discovers the secrets of his parentage, and reconnects with his remaining family.

<i>The Borrowers</i> 1952 childrens novel by Mary Norton

The Borrowers is a children's fantasy novel by the English author Mary Norton, published by Dent in 1952. It features a family of tiny people who live secretly in the walls and floors of an English house and "borrow" from the big people in order to survive. The Borrowers also refers to the series of five novels including The Borrowers and four sequels that feature the same family after they leave "their" house.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penelope Lively</span> British novelist (born 1933)

Dame Penelope Margaret Lively is a British writer of fiction for both children and adults. Lively has won both the Booker Prize and the Carnegie Medal for British children's books.

Leon Garfield FRSL was a British writer of fiction. He is best known for children's historical novels, though he also wrote for adults. He wrote more than thirty books and scripted Shakespeare: The Animated Tales for television.

<i>Toms Midnight Garden</i> 1958 novel by Philippa Pearce

Tom's Midnight Garden is a children's fantasy novel by English author Philippa Pearce. It was first published in 1958 by Oxford University Press with illustrations by Susan Einzig. The story is about a twelve-year-old Tom who, while staying with his aunt and uncle, slips out at midnight and discovers a magical, mysterious Victorian garden where he befriends a young girl named Hatty. The novel has been reissued in print many times and also adapted for radio, television, cinema, and the stage.

<i>The Ghost and Mrs. Muir</i> 1947 film by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is a 1947 American supernatural romantic fantasy film starring Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison. It was directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and is based on a 1945 novel written by Josephine Leslie under the pseudonym of R.A. Dick. In 1945, 20th Century Fox bought the film rights to the novel, published only in the United Kingdom at that time. It was shot entirely in California.

<i>The Citadel</i> (1938 film) 1938 British film by King Vidor

The Citadel is a 1938 British drama film based on the 1937 novel of the same name by A. J. Cronin. The film was directed by King Vidor and produced by Victor Saville for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British at Denham Studios. It stars Robert Donat and Rosalind Russell. The film and book helped the creation of Britain's NHS in 1947.

<i>Pigeon Post</i> 1936 childrens book by Arthur Ransome

Pigeon Post is an English children's adventure novel by Arthur Ransome, published by Jonathan Cape in 1936. It was the sixth of twelve books Ransome completed in the Swallows and Amazons series. He won the inaugural Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising it as the year's best children's book by a British subject.

<i>King of Shadows</i> 1999 historical novel by Susan Cooper

King of Shadows is a children's historical novel by Susan Cooper published in 1999 by Penguin In the United Kingdom, it was a finalist for both the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.

<i>A Northern Light</i> 2003 novel by Jennifer Donnelly

A Northern Light, or A Gathering Light in the U.K., is an American historical novel for young adults, written by Jennifer Donnelly and published by Harcourt in 2003. Set in northern Herkimer County, New York in 1906, it is based on the murder of Grace Brown case —the basis also for An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser (1925).

<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.

<i>Tulku</i> (novel) 1979 childrens historical novel by Peter Dickinson

Tulku is a children's historical novel by Peter Dickinson, published by Gollancz in 1979. Set in China and Tibet at the time of the Boxer Rebellion, it features a young teenage boy orphaned by the violence, who flees with others to a Buddhist monastery. Dickinson and Tulku won two major awards for British children's books, the Whitbread Children's Book Award and the Carnegie Medal. The Carnegie Medal from the Library Association then recognised the year's outstanding children's book by a British subject.

<i>The Twelve and the Genii</i> 1962 childrens novel by Pauline Clarke

The Twelve and the Genii, or The Return of the Twelves in the US, is a low fantasy novel for children by Pauline Clarke, first published by Faber in 1962 with illustrations by Cecil Leslie. It features a young boy and "what might have happened if the lost toy soldiers that once belonged to the Brontë children had ever been found again".

Pauline Clarke was an English author who wrote for younger children under the name Helen Clare, for older children as Pauline Clarke, and more recently for adults under her married name Pauline Hunter Blair. Her best-known work is The Twelve and the Genii, a low fantasy children's novel published by Faber in 1962, for which she won the 1962 Carnegie Medal, the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, and the 1968 Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis.

<i>Granny Was a Buffer Girl</i> 1986 novel by Berlie Doherty

Granny Was a Buffer Girl is a realistic young-adult novel by Berlie Doherty, published by Methuen in 1986. It recounts stories of love, loyalty and change in several generations of a Sheffield family from the 1930s to the 1980s, linking them to the changing fortunes of that industrial city. Doherty won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject.

<i>Nordy Bank</i> (novel) 1964 childrens adventure novel by Sheena Porter

Nordy Bank is a children's adventure novel by Sheena Porter, published by Oxford in 1964 with illustrations by Annette Macarthur-Onslow. Set in the hills of Shropshire, it features children whose camping holiday seems to engage the prehistoric past. Porter won the annual Carnegie Medal for excellence in British children's literature.

<i>The Grange at High Force</i> 1965 childrens novel by Philip Turner

The Grange at High Force is a children's novel by Philip Turner, published by Oxford in 1965 with illustrations by William Papas. It was the second book published in the author's Darnley Mills series. Turner won the annual Carnegie Medal, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject.

<i>Dear Nobody</i> 1991 young adult novel by Berlie Doherty

Dear Nobody is a realistic young-adult novel by Berlie Doherty, published by Hamilton in 1991. Set in the northern England city of Sheffield, it features an unplanned teenage pregnancy and tells the story of its effect on the teenagers and their families.

<i>Goggle-Eyes</i> 1989 childrens novel by Anne Fine

Goggle-Eyes, or My War with Goggle-Eyes in the US, is a children's novel by Anne Fine, published by Hamilton in 1989. It features a girl who thinks she hates her mother's boyfriend. In the frame story, set in a Scottish day school, that girl Kitty tells her friend Helen about hating her mother's boyfriend.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tanya Landman</span> English author

Tanya Landman is an English author of children's and young adult books. She is the niece of the actor Robert Shaw.

References

  1. "The ghost of Thomas Kempe" (US). Library of Congress Catalog Record.
    "The ghost of Thomas Kempe" (UK). LCC record. Retrieved 2012-09-08.
  2. Carnegie Winner 1973. Living Archive: Celebrating the Carnegie and Greenaway Winners. CILIP. Retrieved 2018-02-27.
Awards
Preceded by Carnegie Medal recipient
1973
Succeeded by