Elinor Bruce Lyon (17 August 1921 – 28 May 2008) was an English children's author from a Scottish family background. Several of her novels are set on the
Highland
Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...
coast, others in Wales. They have been seen to feature "strong girls and sensitive boys and shared leadership between the sexes".
[''The Guardian'' obituary by Julia Eccleshare, 24 June 2008]
Retrieved 7 February 2013.
/ref>
Background
Lyon was born in Guisborough
Guisborough ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the borough of Redcar and Cleveland, North Yorkshire, England. It lies north of the North York Moors National Park. Roseberry Topping, midway between the town and Great Ayton, is a landmark i ...
, Yorkshire. She was educated privately and then at St George's School, Edinburgh
St George's School is an independent girls' school situated in the Ravelston district of Edinburgh, Scotland, which was rated 'Excellent' by Education Scotland in its most recent inspection.
In 2018 the school celebrated the 130th anniversary of ...
and Headington School, Oxford
Headington School is an independent girls' school in Headington, Oxford, England, founded by a group of evangelical Christians in 1915. The ''Good Schools Guide'' called Headington "A delightful school, hichnurtures and entertains its pupils wh ...
(1934–1938).[ ''The Independent'' obituary by Nicholas Tucker, 6 June 2008]
Retrieved 3 January 2013.
/ref> She was strongly aware of her Scottish roots.
Elinor Lyon's father was the poet and headmaster P. H. B. Lyon. After a period in Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
, she returned to Oxford to read English at Lady Margaret Hall
Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located on the banks of the River Cherwell at Norham Gardens in north Oxford and adjacent to the University Parks. The college is more formall ...
, just as the Second World War
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 opposin ...
began. She completed four terms, then joined the WRNS: "With many... friends being killed, I couldn't stay there reading Milton."[Introduction by Elinor Lyon, ''The House in Hiding'', ]Fidra Books
Fidra Books is a publisher based in Edinburgh specializing in reissues of bygone children's books, mainly those from the 1940s onwards.
Foundation and range
The firm was set up in 2005 by Malcolm and Vanessa Robertson, who also opened Edinbur ...
, Edinburgh 2006, ii She served for two-and-half years as a radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...
operator.[
Elinor was the inspiration for many of ]John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
John Gillespie Magee Jr. (9 June 1922 – 11 December 1941) was a World War II Anglo-American Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilot and war poet, most noted for penning the sonnet " High Flight". He was killed in an accidental mid-air coll ...
's poems. Magee had met her while attending Rugby School
Rugby School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Rugby, Warwickshire, England.
Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. Up ...
, and he remained close friends with her and her family until his death in December 1941.
Her father served as headmaster of Rugby School
Rugby School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Rugby, Warwickshire, England.
Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. Up ...
from 1931 to 1948. Elinor met her future husband Peter Wright there, when he was a temporary classics and English teacher, and became engaged to him in 1943. He returned to teaching when he was demobbed
Demobilization or demobilisation (see spelling differences) is the process of standing down a nation's armed forces from combat-ready status. This may be as a result of victory in war, or because a crisis has been peacefully resolved and militar ...
in 1946, and although Lyon's father had retired, they remained at Rugby until 1975, when they in turn retired to Harlech
Harlech () is a seaside resort and community in Gwynedd, north Wales and formerly in the historic county of Merionethshire. It lies on Tremadog Bay in the Snowdonia National Park. Before 1966, it belonged to the Meirionydd District of the 197 ...
, Gwynedd
Gwynedd (; ) is a county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Anglesey over the Menai Strait, and C ...
.[
Lyon's fondness for Scotland, the scene of many of her books, dated back to a holiday spent there in her own childhood. Holidays with her children were frequently spent there too, often in remote houses without running water or electricity.]
Elinor Lyon died at Harlech on 28 May 2008, her husband having died of a stroke twelve years earlier. She was survived by two sons, two daughters and twelve grandchildren.
Books
Between 1948 and 1976 Lyon wrote over 20 books for children. These had some success on both sides of the Atlantic. She found they "came much more easily" than writing for adults and believed her inspiration arose from "omnivorous reading".
Lyon began ''The House in Hiding'', for example, after reading ''Swallows and Amazons
''Swallows and Amazons'' is a children's adventure novel by English author Arthur Ransome and first published on 21 July 1930 by Jonathan Cape. Set in the summer of 1929 in the Lake District, the book introduces the main characters of John, ...
'', because she disliked the characters in it (they were too good at everything). In response, the children in ''The House in Hiding'' get things wrong, but still manage to succeed eventually. The change was pinpointed in an obituary by Julia Eccleshare: "Lyon's adventures, with their strong girls and sensitive boys and shared leadership between the sexes, were firmly within the Arthur Ransome
Arthur Michell Ransome (18 January 1884 – 3 June 1967) was an English author and journalist. He is best known for writing and illustrating the ''Swallows and Amazons'' series of children's books about the school-holiday adventures of childre ...
tradition, yet felt more modern, more thoughtful about how children's behaviour is affected by what they experience, especially the way they are treated by adults. Within the adventures, her intention was to show the themes that she felt children cared about: justice, freedom and compassion." The main characters, Ian and Sovra (pronounced with a long "o", from ''sóbhrach'', meaning "primrose" in Gaelic
Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...
), are the son and daughter of a local doctor. They appear in a series of stories recognisably set in the Ardnish Peninsula – specifically Arisaig
Arisaig ( gd, Àrasaig) is a village in Lochaber, Inverness-shire. It lies south of Mallaig on the west coast of the Scottish Highlands, within the Rough Bounds. Arisaig is also the traditional name for part of the surrounding peninsula south ...
and Mallaig
Mallaig (; gd, Malaig derived from Old Norse , meaning sand dune bay) is a port in Lochaber, on the west coast of the Highlands of Scotland. The local railway station, Mallaig, is the terminus of the West Highland railway line (Fort William ...
.
From a 24 June 2005 letter from Elinor Lyon:
''I used the area round Arisaig and Mallaig for my Ian and Sovra books, though I altered quite a lot of things.''
''Kinlochmore = Fort William''
''Loch Fionn = Loch Nan Uamh''
''Kilcorrie and Melvick = a mixture of Arisaig
Arisaig ( gd, Àrasaig) is a village in Lochaber, Inverness-shire. It lies south of Mallaig on the west coast of the Scottish Highlands, within the Rough Bounds. Arisaig is also the traditional name for part of the surrounding peninsula south ...
and Mallaig
Mallaig (; gd, Malaig derived from Old Norse , meaning sand dune bay) is a port in Lochaber, on the west coast of the Highlands of Scotland. The local railway station, Mallaig, is the terminus of the West Highland railway line (Fort William ...
.''
''Fionnard = Ardnish where there is a deserted village, but not in the right place.''
''The railway and the viaduct are real, but Loch-head, Kindrachill and Camas Ban are all imaginary, and I've taken liberties with the landscape – mountains, white sand mountain roads etc.''
As the children explain to a new friend in ''We Daren't Go A'Hunting'', "Stay with us and you won't be bored. You may be seasick or ship-wrecked or drowned or lost or burned or killed by falling over a cliff, but you won't be bored." The third in the series, ''Run Away Home'', is a darker story of an orphan, Cathie, on a reckless search for her past. As with the bossy town girl Ann in the first two books, Cathie is at once a focus and a foil for the doings of the bold and humane Ian and Sovra. In ''Cathie Runs Wild'', No. 5 in the series, she becomes the central character, ably supported by Ian and Sovra, but deeply uncertain of herself as a fostered child, despite clear ideas of what and where she wants to be. Determination to show that girls can be as resourceful and adventurous as boys pervades Lyon's books, not excluding the first, ''Hilary's Island'' (1948).
Among the literary admirers of Lyon's books was Walter de la Mare
Walter John de la Mare (; 25 April 1873 – 22 June 1956) was an English poet, short story writer, and novelist. He is probably best remembered for his works for children, for his poem "The Listeners", and for a highly acclaimed selection of ...
. He stated in a dust-jacket endorsement of ''Wishing Water Gate'' that "a deal of close thinking must have gone into its bright-vivid and complex plot and its lively English; I enjoyed every page." More recently, she was named by the US children's writer Lizzie K. Foley as a favourite author. However, Lyon as a children's novelist escaped almost all critical attention during her 30-year writing career. As one later scholar remarked, "Elinor Lyon, whose series of novels about Ian and Sovra – set in the Scottish Highlands – have something of the character of William Mayne
William James Carter Mayne (16 March 1928 – 24 March 2010) was an English people, English writer of children's fiction. ''The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature'' calls him one of the outstanding children's authors of the 20th century and ...
's early fiction, is not mentioned in any of the standard works." Still, the dust jacket of a 1967 US edition of ''Echo Valley'' quotes ''The Times Literary Supplement
''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp.
History
The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication i ...
'' in calling her "a writer to remember and look for".
Lyon ceased to write in 1975, but reprints of several titles appeared in the 1980s, and four were reissued from 2006 onwards by an Edinburgh publisher, Fidra Books
Fidra Books is a publisher based in Edinburgh specializing in reissues of bygone children's books, mainly those from the 1940s onwards.
Foundation and range
The firm was set up in 2005 by Malcolm and Vanessa Robertson, who also opened Edinbur ...
.
Bibliography
Elinor Lyon's publisher until 1962 and also for ''The Day That Got Lost'' was Hodder & Stoughton
Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint (trade name), imprint of Hachette (publisher), Hachette.
History
Early history
The firm has its origins in the 1840s, with Matthew Hodder's employment, aged 14, with Messrs ...
; subsequent books came from another Hodder imprint, the Brockhampton Press
Brockhampton Press was a British publishing company, based in Leicester.
Children's books
Originally specialising in children's books, from about 1940, Brockhampton Press published the Asterix comic book series, many of Enid Blyton's story colle ...
. Several US editions were published in the 1960s by Follett of Chicago. The biography of her father was privately published by Laurence Vinney. Some of her books were reissued in the 2000s by Fidra Books
Fidra Books is a publisher based in Edinburgh specializing in reissues of bygone children's books, mainly those from the 1940s onwards.
Foundation and range
The firm was set up in 2005 by Malcolm and Vanessa Robertson, who also opened Edinbur ...
; three were available in the final months of 2020. Some titles were translated into German, Spanish, Italian, Swedish and Danish. FictFact is the source for the order of the Ian and Sovra titles.[FictFac]
Retrieved 15 October 2017.
/ref>
References
External links
Obituary in the ''Times''
(paywall)
obituary in the ''Independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
'', Friday, 6 June 2008
Julia Eccleshare, "Elinor Lyon"
obituary in ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', Tuesday, 24 June 2008
Elinor Lyon Collection
– overview of the surviving papers
''Dragon Castle'', Chapter 1
(transcript) at FidraBooks.com
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyon, Elinor
People educated at St George's School, Edinburgh
People educated at Headington School
English children's writers
English women writers
1921 births
2008 deaths
Elinor Lyon
People from Guisborough
Alumni of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
Women's Royal Naval Service ratings