Vivien Alcock (23 September 1924 – 11 October 2003) was an English writer of children's books.

Life and career

Alcock was born in

Worthing Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Hov ...

, now in

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...

, England, and her family moved to

Devizes Devizes is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It developed around Devizes Castle, an 11th-century Norman architecture, Norman castle, and received a charter in 1141. The castle was besieged during the Anarchy, a 12th-century ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

when she was ten years old. She was the youngest of three sisters who were devoted to reading, drawing, and storytelling. Alcock studied at Oxford University's

Ruskin School of Drawing The Ruskin School of Art, known as the Ruskin, is an art school at the University of Oxford, England. It is part of Oxford's Humanities Division. History The Ruskin grew out the Oxford School of Art, which was founded in 1865 and later became ...

until 1942, when she left the program to join the women's branch of the British Army (

Auxiliary Territorial Service The Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS; often pronounced as an acronym) was the women's branch of the British Army during the Second World War. It was formed on 9 September 1938, initially as a women's voluntary service, and existed until 1 Februa ...

).Peters Books: Biography
Alcock and

Leon Garfield Leon Garfield FRSL (14 July 1921 – 2 June 1996) was a British writer of fiction. He is best known for children's historical novels, though he also wrote for adults. He wrote more than thirty books and scripted '' Shakespeare: The Animated Tal ...

met while she was driving ambulances in Belgium. They married and adopted a daughter, named Jane after

Jane Austen Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...

. Garfield became a successful children's writer in the 1960s. Her own first book published was ''The Haunting of Cassie Palmer'', from Methuen in 1980 when she was 56 years old. She followed ''The Haunting'' with ''The Stonewalkers'' (1981) and about twenty others. '' The Cuckoo Sister'' (1985) and '' The Monster Garden'' (1988) are her two most widely held works as catalogued by

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the OCL ...

libraries.

Published writings

* ''The Haunting of Cassie Palmer'' (1980) – produced as a 1981 film of the same name * ''The Stonewalkers'' (1981) – also produced as an

audio cassette The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Otten ...

*''The Sylvia Game'' (1982) * ''Travellers by Night'' (1983) * ''Ghostly Companions: A Feast of Chilling Tales'' (1984) – includes "A Change of Aunts" (1984) * ''The Cuckoo Sister'' (1985) *''Wait and See'' (1986) * ''The Mysterious Mr. Ross'' (1987) * ''A Kind of Thief'' (1988) * ''The Monster Garden'' (1988) *''The Thing in the Woods'' (1989) * ''The Trial of Anna Cotman'' (1989) *''The Dancing Bush'' (1991) * ''Singer to the Sea God'' (1992) *''Othergran'' (1993) * ''The Face at the Window'' (1994); US ed., ''Stranger at the Window'' (1998) *''The Wrecker'' (1994) * ''Time Wreck'' (1996); US ed., ''The Red-Eared Ghosts'' (1997) *''The Silver Egg'' (1997) *''A Gift on a String'' (1998) *''Ticket to Heaven'' (2000) * ''The Boy Who Swallowed a Ghost'' (2001)

Awards and honours

* Best science fiction/fantasy book, ''

Voice of Youth Advocates ''Voice of Youth Advocates'' (''VOYA'') is a bimonthly magazine that provides book reviews and information for librarians with a focus on young adult materials. History and profile ''VOYA'' was established in 1978. The founders are Dorothy Brode ...

'', 1988, ''The Monster Garden'' * Carnegie Medal, shortlist, ''The Trial of Anna Cotman'' * Notable Books for Children, American Library Association: 1985 ''Travellers by Night'', 1986 ''The Cuckoo Sister'', 1988 ''The Monster Garden'' * Horn Book Honor List, ''

The Horn Book Magazine ''The Horn Book Magazine'', founded in Boston in 1924, is the oldest bimonthly magazine dedicated to reviewing children's literature. It began as a "suggestive purchase list" prepared by Bertha Mahony Miller and Elinor Whitney Field, proprietres ...

'': 1985 ''Travellers by Night'' * Horn Book Fanfare Best Books of the Year: 1989 ''The Monster Garden'', 1993 ''A Kind of Thief''

Notes

References

External links

Obituary
by

Julia Eccleshare Julia Eccleshare MBE (born 1951) is a British journalist and writer on the subject of children's books. She has been Children's Books editor for ''The Guardian'' newspaper for more than ten years, at least from 2000. She is also an editorial con ...

in ''The Guardian''
Vivien Alcock
at Fantastic Fiction – bibliographic data with many cover images * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alcock, Vivien 1924 births 2003 deaths English children's writers People from Worthing English women novelists Auxiliary Territorial Service soldiers 20th-century English women 20th-century English people