Gillian Elise Avery (30 September 1926 – 31 January 2016) was a British children's novelist, and a historian of childhood education and

children's literature 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 ...

. She won the

Guardian Children's Fiction Prize The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize or Guardian Award was a literary award that annual recognised one fiction book written for children or young adults (at least age eight) and published in the United Kingdom. It was conferred upon the author ...

in 1972, for ''A Likely Lad.'' It was

adapted In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the po ...

for television in 1990.

Life

Gillian Avery was born in

Reigate Reigate ( ) is a town status in the United Kingdom, town in Surrey, England, around south of central London. The settlement is recorded in Domesday Book in 1086 as ''Cherchefelle'' and first appears with its modern name in the 1190s. The earlie ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, and attended Dunottar School there. She worked first as a journalist on the ''Surrey Mirror'', then for

Chambers's Encyclopaedia ''Chambers's Encyclopaedia'' was founded in 1859Chambers, W. & R"Concluding Notice"in ''Chambers's Encyclopaedia''. London: W. & R. Chambers, 1868, Vol. 10, pp. v–viii. by William and Robert Chambers of Edinburgh and became one of the most ...

and

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. In 1952 she married the literary scholar A. O. J. Cockshut, with whom she moved to Manchester, returning to Oxford in 1964. She is the author of several studies of the history of education and of children's literature, and that scholarly interest is reflected in her own books for children, which are set in

Victorian England In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

. The first, ''The Warden's Niece'' (1957), is a witty adventure story in which Maria runs away from her stultifying

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

to live with her great-uncle, the head of an Oxford college. Impressed by her academic ambitions (she wants to become Professor of Greek), he decides to let her stay, and she proves her abilities as a researcher by uncovering a piece of history from 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 ...

. Characters from ''The Warden's Niece'' reappear in ''The Elephant War'' (1960), which is about an attempt to prevent the sale of

Jumbo Jumbo (about December 25, 1860 – September 15, 1885), also known as Jumbo the Elephant and Jumbo the Circus Elephant, was a 19th-century male African bush elephant born in Sudan. Jumbo was exported to Jardin des Plantes, a zoo in Paris, and t ...

by the London Zoo to

P. T. Barnum Phineas Taylor Barnum (; July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman, businessman, and politician, remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and founding the Barnum & Bailey Circus (1871–2017) with James Anthony Bailey. He was ...

, and in ''The Italian Spring'' (1962). Beside winning the Guardian Prize for ''A Likely Lad'', Gillian Avery was three times a commended runner-up for the Carnegie Medal from the

Library Association The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, since 2017 branded CILIP: The library and information association (pronounced ), is a professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge management, knowle ...

, which recognises the year's best children's book by a British writer: for ''The Warden's Niece'' (1957), ''The Greatest Gresham'' (1962) and ''A Likely Lad'' (1971). Avery died in January 2016 at the age of 89.

Selected works

;Children's books * ''The Warden's Niece'' (1957, U.S. 1963) ‡ * ''Trespassers at Charlcote'' (1958) * ''James Without Thomas'' (1959) * ''The Elephant War'' (1960, U.S. 1971), illustrated by John Verney ‡ * ''To Tame a Sister'' (1961), illustrated by John Verney * ''The Greatest Gresham'' (1962) * ''The Peacock House'' (1963) * ''The Italian Spring'' (1964, U.S. 1972), illustrated by John Verney ‡ * ''Call of the Valley'' (1968) * ''A Likely Lad'' (

Collins Collins may refer to: People Surname Given name * Collins O. Bright (1917–?), Sierra Leonean diplomat * Collins Chabane (1960–2015), South African Minister of Public Service and Administration * Collins Cheboi (born 1987), Kenyan middle- ...

, 1971), illustrated by Faith Jaques * ''Ellen's Birthday'' (1971) * ''Ellen and the Queen'' (1972), illustrated by Krystyna Turska * ''Huck and her Time Machine'' (1977) * ''Mouldy's Orphan'' (1978), illustrated by Faith Jaques :‡ ''The Warden's Niece'' and its sequels ''The Elephant War'' and ''The Italian Spring'' were published in the U.S. several years after their first editions. The first and third were reissued many years later as ''Maria Escapes'' (1992) and ''Maria's Italian Spring'' (1993). :

Naomi Lewis Naomi Lewis (3 September 1911 – 5 July 2009) was a British poet, essayist, literary critic, anthologist and reteller of stories for children. She is particularly noted for her translations of the Danish children's author, Hans Christian A ...

reviewed ''The Elephant War'' as "the fourth of this author's witty and exhilarating stories about children and their elders living in Victorian Oxfordshire. The dialogue alone would make them a pleasure to read—though, since most of the fathers are wardens or dons, the reader does need to be a fairly literate child." ''The Observer'', 11 December 1960, p. 28. ;Non-fiction *''Mrs Ewing'' (London: Bodley Head, 1961) —about

Juliana Horatia Ewing Juliana Horatia Ewing (née Gatty, 3 August 1841 – 13 May 1885) was an English writer of children's stories. Her writings display a sympathetic insight into children's lives, an admiration for things military, and a strong religious faith. L ...

*''Childhood's Pattern: A Study of the Heroes and Heroines of Children's Fiction, 1770–1950'' (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1975) *''The Best Type of Girl: A History of Girls' Independent Schools'' (London, 1991) * ''Behold the Child: American Children and Their Books, 1621–1922'' (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994) *''Cheltenham Ladies: An Illustrated History of the

Cheltenham Ladies' College Cheltenham Ladies' College is an independent boarding and day school for girls aged 11 to 18 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. Consistently ranked as one of the top all-girls' schools nationally, the school was established in 1853 to p ...

'' (London: James & James Ltd, 2003) ;As editor * ''The Journal of

Emily Pepys Emily Pepys (9 August 1833 – 12 September 1877) was an English child diarist, whose account of six months of her life provides a vivid insight into a wealthy bishop's family. She was a collateral descendant of the diarist Samuel Pepys. Biogra ...

'' (London: Prospect, 1984)

Notes

References

;Citations * Cadogan, Mary, 'Avery, Gillian (Elise)', ''Twentieth Century Children's Writers'', ed. D.L. Kirkpatrick (London: Macmillan, 1978), 57–9. * Carpenter, Humphrey and Prichard, Mari, ''The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature'' (Oxford:OUP) 1984, 38–9. * Townsend, John Rowe, ''Written for Children'' (Harmondsworth: Penguin) ed. 3 1987, 255–6

External links

Gillian Avery
search results at ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

'' * (previous page of browse report, as 'Avery, Gillian 1926–' without '2016') {{DEFAULTSORT:Avery, Gillian 1926 births 2016 deaths Children's literature criticism English children's writers Guardian Children's Fiction Prize winners People educated at Dunottar School for Girls People from Reigate 20th-century British women writers