William Mayne
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William Mayne (born 1928) is a British writer of children's fiction. Born in Hull, he was educated at the choir school attached to Canterbury Cathedral and his memories of that time contributed to his early books. He has lived for most of his life in North Yorkshire.
He was described as one of the outstanding children's authors of the 20th Century by the Oxford Companion to Children's Literature, and won the Carnegie Medal in 1957 for A Grass Rope and the Guardian Award in 1993 for Low Tide. He has written more than a hundred books, and is best known for his Choir School quartet comprising A Swarm in May, Choristers' Cake, Cathedral Wednesday and Words and Music, and his Earthfasts trilogy comprising Earthfasts, Cradlefasts and Candlefasts, an unusual evocation of the King Arthur legend.
A Swarm in May was filmed by the Children's Film Unit in 1983 and a five-part television series of Earthfasts was broadcast by the BBC in 1994.
William Mayne was imprisoned for two and a half years in 2004 after admitting to charges of child sexual abuse between 1960 and 1975, and was placed on the British sex offenders' register for life.
[edit] Selected Bibliography
- Follow the Footprints (1953)
- The World Upside Down (1954)
- A Swarm in May (1955)
- Member for the Marsh (1956)
- Choristers' Cake (1956)
- The Blue Boat (1957)
- A Grass Rope (1957)
- Underground Alley (1958)
- Cathedral Wednesday (1960)
- The Twelve Dancers (1962)
- Plot Night (1963)
- A Parcel of Trees (1963)
- Whistling Rufus (1964)
- No More School (1965)
- Pig in the Middle (1965)
- Earthfasts (1966)
- Over the Hills and Far Away (1968)
- Ravensgill (1970)
- A Game of Dark (1971)
- Skiffy (1972)
- A Year and a Day (1974)
- It (1977)
- While the Bells Ring (1979)
- Winter Quarters (1982)
- Drift (1985)
- Kelpie (1987)
- Antar and the Eagles (1985)
- Low Tide (1993)
- Cuddy (1994)
- Cradlefasts (1995)
- Midnight Fair (1997)
- Candlefasts (2000)
