Michelle Magorian
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Michelle Magorian
(1948–), British author, born in Southsea, Hampshire, and educated at the Bruford College of Speech and Drama, then at Marcel Marceau's École du Mime in Paris. She was working as an actress when her first novel, Goodnight, Mister Tom (1981), which won the Guardian Children's Fiction Award, appeared. The book tells the moving story of William Beech, an evacuee during World War II. Leaving behind his sin-obsessed, Bible-bashing mother, he blossoms under the care of the grumpy widower Tom, who helps him discover his many hidden talents, and his worth as a human being, and eventually adopts him after his mother's suicide.
None of her other four novels has matched the success of Goodnight, Mister Tom, now considered a modern classic, although Back Home (1985) deservedly won the American Library Association Award. It tells the story of Rusty, who returns home after five years in America as an evacuee, and of her mother Peggy's attempt to rebuild family life. Eventually, Peggy accepts that her wartime experience has made her unable to resume her role as a subservient wife, and she moves on to a new life with her children.
A Little Love Song (1991), Cuckoo in the Nest (1994), and A Spoonful of Jam (1998) also focus on the impact of war on family relationships and on the equally difficult return to peace. A Little Love Song additionally compares the First and Second World Wars, while the other two novels, set in the acting world, explore class and gender divisions and allow Magorian to reiterate her belief in the primacy of individual self-realization over conformity to established norms.
Magorian has also published some poetry, Waiting for My Shorts to Dry (1989) and Orange Paw Marks (1991); a picture book, Jump (1992); and two collections of short stories, In Deep Water (1992) and the emblematically titled Be Yourself (2003).
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Michelle Magorian
| Michelle Magorian | |
|---|---|
| Born | 6 November 1947 UK |
| Occupation | Novelist |
Michelle Magorian (born 6 November 1947 in Portsmouth, Hampshire) is an English author of children's books, including Goodnight Mister Tom, Back Home and A Little Love Song.
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Biography
Michelle Magorian was the daughter of a navy man. She was born in hampshire, Portsmouth, before travlling to live in singapore, Austrailia, when she was seven and returning at the age of nine. As a child she spent as much time as possible in the King's Theatre in Portsmouth and her ambition was to become an actress. After three years of study at the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama, she spent two years at Marcel Marceau's L'école Internationale de Mime in Paris. From there she launched into a professional acting career and spent a few years touring all over the country - from Scotland to Devon and then Yorkshire - working in repertory companies, taking any part she could. Michelle's worst stage part was playing Orinoco the Womble in a musical. All this time she had been secretly writing stories. In her mid-twenties she became interested in children's books, and decided to write one herself.
The result was Goodnight Mister Tom, published in 1981 a winner of the Guardian Award and the International Reading Association Award. The book was adapted into a film by ITV in 1998 and has also been the subject of a musical. Since then she has published five more novels: Just Henry, A Spoonful of Jam, A Little Love song (Not A Swan in the USA), Back Home and Cuckoo in the Nest. She has also written two collections of poetry, a collection of short stories and two picture books.
Michelle wrote Goodnight Mister Tom in a novel-writing class. The idea for the book came from the colours in a song from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. She thought of brown as an earthy, old colour and green as a colour of youth. The character of William Beech came into her head because she thought of a beech tree with its slim trunk and it gave her the idea for a slim young boy. Details for the story came from her mother's tales about her time as a nurse in the World War II. It took Michelle four and a half years to write Goodnight Mister Tom because she was also working in the theatre and upon publication it quickly became an international success.
Michelle followed Good Night Mister Tom with Back Home, another story which was set during the war. However, the main character in Back Home is a young girl; the story details her struggle at being back home in England after five years of living with a family in America as an evacuee.
A Little Love Song (Not a Swan in the USA) follows a young woman called Rose, and is about gaining independence and finding first love in wartime Britain.
Most of Michelle's other books are also set in the mid-1900s, often based around theatres.
In 2007, she received an honorary doctorate from Portsmouth University.[1]
Just Henry won the Children's Book category in the 2008 Costa Book Awards.[2]
Bibliography
- Goodnight Mister Tom (1980) (ISBN 0-06-440174-X)
- Back Home (1984) (ISBN 0-06-440411-0)
- Waiting for My Shorts to Dry (1989)
- Who's Going to Take Care of Me? (1990)
- Orange Paw Marks (1991)
- A Little Love Song (1991) (ISBN 0-7497-1061-6) published as Not a Swan in the USA
- In Deep Water (1992)
- Jump (1992)
- Not a Swan (1992)
- A Cuckoo in the Nest (1994)
- A Spoonful of Jam (1998)
- Be Yourself (2003)
- Just Henry (2008)
References
External links
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The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature. © March 2006
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