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Alison Prince (26 March 1931 – 12 October 2019) was a British
children's writer Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...
, screenwriter and biographer, who settled on the Isle of Arran in Scotland. Her novels for young people won several awards. She was the scriptwriter of the much repeated children's television series ''
Trumpton ''Trumpton'' is a British stop-motion children's television series from the producers of '' Camberwick Green''. First shown on the BBC from January to March 1967, it was the second series in the ''Trumptonshire'' trilogy, which comprised ''Cam ...
''.


Background

Prince was born on 26 March 1931 in
Beckenham, Kent Beckenham () is a town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley, in Greater London. Until 1965 it was part of the historic county of Kent. It is located south-east of Charing Cross, situated north of Elmers End a ...
(now in Greater London) to Louise (née David) and Charles Prince. Her mother trained as a nurse and was later Mayor of
Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, c ...
while her father was manager of the Yorkshire Bank in London. She grew up in South London and attended a girls' grammar school where she enjoyed grammar and Latin, but not maths. Her parents were from Scotland and Yorkshire. Her father was a keen pianist, and she played the clarinet. As a child she visited Scottish relatives in
Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
. After completing a degree course at the
Slade School of Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...
, where she had won a scholarship, Prince found work in casual, low-paid jobs unrelated to art. She later took a postgraduate teaching diploma at
Goldsmiths College Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wo ...
, then taught art at the Elliott Comprehensive School, in
Putney Putney () is a district of southwest London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. History Putney is an ancient paris ...
. She married a fellow teacher, Goronwy Parry, and together they had three children. With this interruption to her teaching career, she turned instead to occasional journalism. After the marriage ended, she ran a small farm in Suffolk for eight years.


From television to books

Prince later moved into writing for children's television, gaining notice with her scripts for the
stop motion Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...
animated puppet series ''
Trumpton ''Trumpton'' is a British stop-motion children's television series from the producers of '' Camberwick Green''. First shown on the BBC from January to March 1967, it was the second series in the ''Trumptonshire'' trilogy, which comprised ''Cam ...
'' (1967) for young children produced by
Gordon Murray Ian Gordon Murray (born 18 June 1946 in Durban, Union of South Africa), is a South African-born British designer of Formula One racing cars and the McLaren F1 road car. He is the founder and CEO of Gordon Murray Automotive. Early life Born t ...
. Prince also wrote the lyrics for the songs performed by
Brian Cant Brian Cant (12 July 1933 – 19 June 2017) was an English actor of stage, television and film, television presenter, voice artist and writer. He was best known for his work in BBC television programmes for children from 1964 onward, most notabl ...
. "I didn’t have a television, but I had three kids to feed, so I said yes," she recalled in 2006. Her first book was ''Joe and a Horse and other stories about Joe from 'Watch with Mother'', with Joan Hickson, a 1968 spin-off from the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
pre-school program ''
Watch with Mother ''Watch with Mother'' was a cycle of children's programmes created by Freda Lingstrom and Maria Bird. Broadcast by BBC Television from 1952 until 1975, it was the first BBC television series aimed specifically at pre-school children, a developme ...
''. In the late 1970s, she turned to writing books for children, some based on historical characters. They include ''
My Royal Story My Royal Story is a series for older children that are some re prints of the Royal Diaries and some of the girls My Story. They are written in diary forms of real and fictional characters in different parts of the world and in different time perio ...
'' about Catherine of Aragon, which was re-released in 2010. ''How's Business'' (1987), set in
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, made the shortlist for the Nestle Smarties Book Prize. ''The Sherwood Hero'' (1995) is a modern-day
Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is dep ...
story for young adults, about a girl stealing a credit card from her father's client, drawing £100, attempting to hand it out to the poor in the streets of
Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
, and then coping with the guilt. For this Prince was a joint winner (with
Philip Pullman Sir Philip Nicholas Outram Pullman (born 19 October 1946) is an English writer. His books include the fantasy trilogy '' His Dark Materials'' and '' The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ'', a fictionalised biography of Jesus. In 2008, ''T ...
) of the ''Guardian'' Children's Fiction Prize, a once-in-a-lifetime book award judged by a panel of British children's writers. Her thriller ''Oranges and Murder'' was the
Scottish Arts Council The Scottish Arts Council ( gd, Comhairle Ealain na h-Alba, sco, Scots Airts Cooncil) was a Scottish public body responsible for the funding, development and promotion of the arts in Scotland. The Council primarily distributed funding from the ...
Children's Book of the Year in 2002. Translations of her books have been published in several languages, including Danish, German, Japanese and Welsh. Mainly for adults, Prince wrote well-received biographies of
Kenneth Grahame Kenneth Grahame ( ; 8 March 1859 – 6 July 1932) was a British writer born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is most famous for ''The Wind in the Willows'' (1908), a classic of children's literature, as well as '' The Reluctant Dragon''. Both books w ...
(1994, reissued 2009) and Hans Christian Andersen (1998), a collection of essays on formative thinking, two booklets of poetry, and two volumes of pieces that had originally appeared in a local Arran newspaper. In 2005, Prince received an honorary doctorate of letters from the
University of Leicester , mottoeng = So that they may have life , established = , type = public research university , endowment = £20.0 million , budget = £326 million , chancellor = David Willetts , vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah , head_lab ...
for services to children's books. ''Forbidden Soldier'', a children's book about the second phase of the
English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
, appeared in 2014, as did ''The Lost King: Richard III and the Princes in the Tower'', a biography of Richard III.


Death

Alison Prince died on 12 October 2019, aged 88, having been ill for a number of years, which involved undergoing major heart surgery.


Selected works

These titles are or have recently been available in the UK, according to the websites of major internet booksellers:


Notes


References

;Citations * * * – including a 1966 photograph *''Trumpton''. Episode 6 – The Mayor's Birthday
part 1part 2
. YouTube. Retrieved 25 April 2012 *


External links

* *
Filmography by TV series for Alison Prince
at
IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prince, Alison 1931 births 2019 deaths British children's writers 21st-century British women writers British women children's writers British horror writers Women horror writers Ghost story writers Guardian Children's Fiction Prize winners BBC people Writers from London People from the Isle of Arran People from Beckenham Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art