Peter Dickinson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Peter Malcolm de Brissac Dickinson (born December 16, 1927) is an English author who has written a wide variety of books, notably children's books and detective stories, over a long and distinguished career.

Contents

[edit] Life and Work

Dickinson was born in Livingstone, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), but his parents moved back to England so that he and his brothers could attend English schools: Dickinson was at Eton College from 1941-1946. After completing his National Service (1946-1948), he studied at King's College, Cambridge, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1951. For seventeen years, from 1952-1969, he worked assistant editor and reviewer for Punch Magazine.[1]

Dickinson has written almost fifty books, which fall into three general categories: mysteries for adults (including the James Pibble series); novels for younger readers (many of which have a fantastic or supernatural element); and a few simpler children's books.

Both of Dickinson's first crime novels won the Crime Writers' Association's Gold Dagger, Skin Deep in 1968 and A Pride of Heroes in 1969. He has been similarly successful with his children's books. He won the Guardian Award in 1977 for The Blue Hawk and the Whitbread prize for best children's book in 1979 for Tulku. In 1982 he was placed on the International Board of Books for Young People Honor List for Tulku, and The Iron Lion was selected one of New York Times Notable Books. In 1989 he won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Eva. He was also shortlisted for the Whitbread award for his book The Kin.

Dickinson's three early books, The Weathermonger, Heartsease and The Devil's Children make up the Changes Trilogy, which was adapted (with many changes) into the BBC TV series The Changes in 1975. The trilogy was written in reverse order; The Devil's Children is actually the first book in terms of the trilogy's chronology, Heartsease the second, and The Weathermonger the third.

A pair of alternative history novels, King and Joker, 1976, and Skeleton-in-Waiting, 1989, are based on the premise that Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence survives and ultimately reigns as Victor I of England.

His latest work is a collection of his own poetry, The Weir: Poems by Peter Dickinson which was published on the occasion of his 80th birthday in 2007, as a gift from his four children.

Dickinson married Mary Rose Barnard in 1953; the marriage had two sons and two daughters.[2] He is now married to the novelist Robin McKinley.

[edit] Bibliography

  • The Glass-Sided Ants' Nest (apa Skin Deep) (1968) #
  • The Weathermonger (1968)
  • The Old English Peep-Show (apa A Pride of Heroes) (1969) #
  • Heartsease (1969)
  • The Sinful Stones (apa The Seals) (1970) #
  • The Devil's Children (1970)
  • Emma Tupper's Diary (1970)
  • Sleep and His Brother (1971) #
  • The Lizard in the Cup (1972) #
  • The Dancing Bear (1972)
  • The Green Gene (1973)
  • The Gift (1973)
  • The Iron Lion (1973)
  • The Poison Oracle (1974)
  • The Lively Dead (1975)
  • Chance, Luck and Destiny (1975) (nonfiction about probability and coincidence)
  • The Blue Hawk (1975)
  • King and Joker (1976)
  • Walking Dead (1977)
  • Annerton Pit (1977)
  • Hepzibah (1978)
  • One Foot in the Grave (1979) #
  • The Flight of Dragons (1979)
  • Tulku (1979)
  • City of Gold (1980)
  • A Summer in the Twenties (1981)
  • The Seventh Raven (1981)
  • The Last House party (1982)
  • Hind sight (1983)
  • Healer (1983)
  • Death of a Unicorn (1984)
  • Giant Cold (1984)
  • Tefuga (1985)
  • A Box of Nothing (1985)
  • Perfect Gallows (1987)
  • Mole Hole (1987)
  • Eva (1988)
  • Merlin Dreams (1988)
  • Skeleton-in-Waiting (1989)
  • AK (1990)
  • Play Dead (1992)
  • A Bone from a Dry Sea (1992)
  • Shadow of a Hero (1993)
  • Time and the Clock Mice, Etcetera (1993)
  • The Yellow Room Conspiracy (1994)
  • Chuck and Danielle (1996)
  • The Kin (1998) (apa four-volume series: Suth's Story, Noli's Story, Ko's Story, and Mana's Story)
  • Some Deaths Before Dying (1999)
  • Touch and Go (1999)
  • The Lion Tamer's Daughter (1999)
  • The Ropemaker (2001)
  • Water: Tales of the Elemental Spirits (With Robin McKinley) (apa Elementals: Water) (2002)
  • The Tears of the Salamander (2003)
  • Inside Grandad (2004) (apa The Gift Boat)
  • Angel Isle, a sequel to The Ropemaker (2006)
  • The Weir: Poems by Peter Dickinson (2007) a collection of poetry

# James Pibble series

[edit] Secondary Literature

Townsend, John Rowe, "Dickinson, Peter", in Twentieth-Century Children's Writers ed. D. L. Kirkpatrick (London: Macmillan, 1978), 371-4.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Townsend (1978), 371.
  2. ^ Townsend (1978), 371.

[edit] External links

 This article about a writer, poet or playwright is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.