Nicholas Stuart Gray (23 October 1922, Scotland – 17 March 1981) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

actor and playwright, perhaps best known for his work in children's theatre in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. He was also an author of children's

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...

; he wrote a number of novels, a dozen plays, and many short stories. Neil Gaiman has written that Gray "is one of those authors I loved as a boy who holds up even better on rereading as an adult". Many other modern fantasy authors, such as

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, and

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, cite Gray's work as something they enjoyed as children. Perhaps his best-known books are ''The Seventh Swan'' and ''Grimbold's Other World.'' Gray often produced adaptations or continuations of traditional fairy tales and fantasy works, as in his ''Further Adventures of Puss in Boots.'' His ''The Stone Cage'' is a re-telling of ''

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'' from a cat's point of view. ''Over the Hills to Fabylon'' is about a city whose king has the ability to make it fly off across the mountains if he feels it is in danger. Gray maintained a long-term collaborative relationship with set designer and illustrator

Joan Jefferson Farjeon Joan Jefferson Farjeon (26 May 1913 – 8 August 2006) was an English scenographer and costume designer. Born into a literary family, she began illustrating in 1939 and began working as a sceneographer and costume designer in 1941, working in the ...

, who supplied the costume and scenic designs for many of the theatrical productions of his plays, as well as the illustrations for most of his printed plays and for the novel version of ''The Seventh Swan''.

Bibliography

Theatre

Plays for children

* ''Beauty and the Beast'' (1951) * ''The Princess and the Swineherd'' (1952) * ''The Tinder Box'' (1954) * ''The Hunters and the Henwife'' (1954) * ''The Marvellous Story of Puss in Boots'' (1955) * ''New Clothes for the Emperor'' (1957) * ''The Imperial Nightingale'' (1957) * ''The Other Cinderella'' (1958) * ''The Seventh Swan: A Play'' (1962) * ''The Stone Cage: A Play'' (1963) * ''New Lamps for Old'' (1968) * ''Gawain and the Green Knight'' (1969)

Prose

Novels for children

* ''Over the Hills to Fabylon'' (1954) * ''Down in the Cellar'' (1961) * ''The Seventh Swan: A Novel'' (1962) * ''Grimbold's Other World'' (1963) * ''The Stone Cage: A Novel'' (1963) * ''The Apple Stone'' (1965) * ''The Further Adventures of Puss in Boots'' (1971) * ''The Wardens of the Weir'' (1978) * ''The Garland of Filigree'' (1979)

Short fiction for children

=Collections

= * ''Mainly in Moonlight'' (1965) (twelve short stories) * ''The Edge of Evening'' (1976) (eight short stories) * ''A Wind from Nowhere'' (1978) (nine short stories)

=Other short fiction

= * ''The Sorcerer's Apprentices'' (1986) (picture book of a story from ''Mainly in Moonlight'')

Novels for adults

* ''Killer's Cookbook'' (1976)

Nonfiction

* ''The Boys: Cats with Everything'' (1968)

Poetry

* ''Facets: Poems and Pictures'' (1977)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Nicholas Stuart Scottish fantasy writers Scottish children's writers Scottish dramatists and playwrights 1922 births 1981 deaths 20th-century British dramatists and playwrights