Philip Turner

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Philip William Turner (born December 3, 1925) is an English author best known for his children's books about the fictional town of Darnley Mills and (as Stephen Chance) about the Reverend Septimus Treloar.

[edit] Life

Born in British Columbia, Canada on December 3, 1925 to English parents from Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, Philip Turner was brought to England in 1926. He was educated at Hinckley Grammar School in Leicestershire and spent many school holidays exploring the East Anglian fens whilst staying with his grandparents. He served his National Service from 1943 to 1946 as a Sub-Lieutenant Mechanical Engineer in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. He then resumed his education at Worcester College, Oxford, whence he graduated in 1949. He married Margaret Diana Samson in 1950 with whom he had two sons.

Turner was ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1951 and served in parishes in Leeds, Crawley and Northampton. In the late 1960s he became the Head of Religious Broadcasting for the Midland Region and subsequently became a teacher at Droitwich High School, chaplain of Eton College and a part-time teacher at Malvern College, Worcestershire.

He began writing religious pieces in the mid 1950s and in 1964 the first of his children's novels was published. Set in the fictional town of Darnley Mills in North East England, Colonel Sheperton's Clock involves a schoolboy mystery woven into an account of a boy's surgery to heal a disabled leg. Four subsequent books in the series told more stories of the three heroes of the first and another four created a local history from the nineteenth century up to the Second World War.

Turner won the Carnegie Medal for children's literature for his second novel The Grange at High Force in 1966.

Philip died from his home in West Malvern in January 2006[citation needed].

[edit] Bibliography

  • Philip Turner, Christ in the Concrete City, (London: S.P.C.K., 1956) [a play]
  • Philip Turner, Cry Dawn in Dark Babylon, (London: S.P.C.K., 1959) [A dramatic meditation]
  • Philip Turner, Tell it with Trumpets — Three experiments in drama and evangelism, (London: S.P.C.K., 1959)
  • Philip Turner, Casey — A dramatic meditation on the Passion, (London: S.P.C.K. 1962.
  • Philip Turner, The Christmas Story — A carol service for children, (London: Church Information Office, 1964)
  • Philip Turner, Colonel Sheperton's Clock1, (Oxford: University Press, 1964) [Darnley Mills]
  • Philip Turner, Peter was his Nickname, (London: Waltham Forest Books, 1965) [On Saint Peter, the apostle.]
  • Philip Turner, The Grange at High Force2, (Oxford: University Press, 1965) [Darnley Mills]
  • Philip Turner, Sea Peril, (Oxford: University Press, 1966) [Darnley Mills]
  • Philip Turner, Steam on the Line, (Oxford: University Press, 1968) [Darnley Mills]
  • Philip Turner, War on the Darnel, (Oxford: University Press, 1969) [Darnley Mills]
  • Philip Turner, Wigwig and Homer, (Oxford: University Press, 1969) [for younger children; illustrated by Graham Humphreys]
  • Philip Turner, Devil's Nob, (London: Hamilton, 1970) [Darnley Mills]
  • Philip Turner, Powder Quay, (London: Hamilton, 1971) [Darnley Mills]
  • Stephen Chance, Septimus and the Danedyke Mystery, (London: Bodley Head, 1971)
  • Stephen Chance, Septimus and the Minster Ghost, (London: Bodley Head, 1972)
  • Philip Turner, Dunkirk Summer, (London: Hamilton, 1973) [Darnley Mills]
  • Stephen Chance, Septimus and the Stone of Offering, (London: Bodley Head, 1976)
  • Philip Turner, Skull Island, (London: Dent, 1977) [Darnley Mills]
  • Stephen Chance, Septimus and the Spy Ring, (London: Bodley Head, 1979)
  • Philip Turner, Rookoo and Bree, (London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1979) [for younger children; illustrated by Terry Riley]
  • Philip Turner, Decision in the Dark – Tales of Mystery, (London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1978)
  • Philip Turner, The Good Shepherd (1986) [illustrated by Bunshu Iguchi]
  • Philip Turner, Three one act plays (c1987)
  • Philip Turner, The Candlemass Treasure, (London: Lutterworth, 1988)
  • Philip Turner, The Bible story (1989)

[edit] Notes

Note 1: Retitled The Mystery of the Colonel's Clock for the United States edition. Note 2: Retitled The Adventure at High Force for the United States edition.

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