Berlie Doherty

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Berlie Doherty (born November 6, 1943 in Knotty Ash , Liverpool as Berlie Hollingsworth ) is a British children's and youth author . She worked as a social worker for children, as a teacher and for the radio before publishing her first book in 1982 and becoming a writer from 1983.

Career

Berlie Doherty was born in Knotty Ash , a Liverpool ward in what is now Metropolitan County Merseyside . At the age of four, she moved to a small town by the sea, where she continued to grow up. Her father encouraged her to write stories and poetry, some of which were published on the children's pages of the (now defunct) local daily newspapers, Hoylake News and Advertiser and The Liverpool Echo . When she reached the age limit for these offers at the age of 14, she stopped her writing for a longer period of time.

The turn to writing was initiated by her father, as she reported at an award ceremony:

“I cherished the dream, but it was my father who nourished it. He used to tell me bedtime stories every night, and very often we would make them up together, tossing the ideas backwards and forwards like a bright ball. Then he would drop the ball — 'I've had enough now', he would say, '... you can finish that for yourself. "

“I nursed the dream, but it was my father who nourished it. He would tell me bedtime stories every night, and very often we would invent them together and play ideas to each other like a bright ball. Then he let the ball fall - "I've had enough now," he said, "... you can do it end for yourself. ""

- Berlie Doherty : Original sound

She completed her education at Upton Hall Convent School. This was followed by English studies at the University of Durham , which she successfully completed in 1965, and postgraduate studies in social sciences at the University of Liverpool , which she also successfully completed in 1966. After their third child started school, Berlie Doherty went back to university, the University of Sheffield , to train as a teacher. She completed this postgraduate course in 1978. During this time she started writing again.

In the late 1970s, now a teacher, she was sent to the regional broadcaster BBC Radio Sheffield to write and produce hearing aid programs for schools. After about two years, she also started writing her own pieces for BBC Radio 4. Between 1979 and 1982 she wrote various short stories for BBR Radio Sheffield and four radio plays up to 1985: The Drowned Village (1980, her premiere piece ), Unlucky for Some (1980), Requiem (1982, originally a short story, later developed into a novel) and Sacrifice (1985). From 1990 a few more productions followed at irregular intervals. She also wrote some material for the BBC's school program, especially in the early 1980s.

Career as an author

Her first official book release was How Free You Are! In 1982 . .

“Requiem”, her first book for adults, took ten years to develop and was published in 1991. The origins go back to a university course in creative writing, in which Doherty laid the foundation with a short story.

The novel "Das Mädchen, das Löwen sah" (original title Abela: The Girl Who Saw Lions ), published in German in 2009 and aimed primarily at readers aged around ten, is the author's 50th book.

Thematically, Doherty is not limited to a specific genre, rather it covers a certain range. Part draws on your experience as a social worker to address contemporary issues. These include teenage pregnancies ( Dear Nobody , 1991), adoption ( The Snake-Stone , 1995) and AIDS orphans from Africa, and child trafficking ( Abela: The Girl wo saw the Lion , 2007). As a conservationist, her picture book Tilly Mint and the Dodo (1988) deals with the extinction of species. Otherwise, for example, her novel Spellhorn relies on a fantasy world to approach the topic of blindness, while other works such as Street Child (1993) and Treason (2011) rely on a fact-based historical world - in one case, London in the 1860s and the other, the reign of Henry VIII. Autobiographical elements can be found in the novels Granny Was a Buffer Girl (1986, the story of her parents' wedding) and The Sailing Ship Tree (1998, the lives of her father and a grandfather).

Berlie Doherty's works are often recognisably related to a real place. This is clearly visible in the fact that, as a young mother and a. Driving around Derbyshire by car “just like that” and doing various camping trips with her children here. Later, she consciously bought a house in the village of Edale . In addition to the story Deep Secret (2004), which refers to the submerged villages of Derwent and Ashopton in the Ladybower Reservoir , A Beautiful Place for a Murder (2017) is also explicitly set in Edale. During an interview on the book Far From Home (2015), the sequel to Street Child , she emphasized once again how important it is to let the action take place in a familiar place - in this case, too, it is Derbyshire.

Poems and short stories

Berlie Doherty's first collection of poems, Walking on Floor , was first published in 1993 by Harper Collins and again in 1999 by Hodder. Otherwise, some of her poems have found their way into anthologies by various editors. Her poem "Here lies a city's heart ..." was engraved on two semicircular stones in a pedestrian zone in Sheffield. The stones mark the intersection of The Moor and Rockingham Way streets. The diameter of the circle is 1.95 m and the letters of the eleven-line poem are 9 cm tall.

Berlie Doherty also published a number of volumes of short stories. Running on Ice from 1997, for example, contains eight short stories that were published by various publishers between 1985 and 1996. Some of these stories were also edited as a radio version for BBC Radio 4, the stories Ghost Galleon and Nightmare were also published again separately as Nightmare: Two Ghostly Tales .

Radio, television, theater

Berlie Doherty has written many pieces for the radio, which she describes as "a wonderful medium for writing". The reason: The medium invites both the writer and the listener to "use their imagination and" see "with their spiritual eye". Her premiere piece in 1980 was the approximately 30-minute fantasy radio play The Drowned Village about the village of Derwent, which went down in the Ladybower Reservoir . Later followed u. a. the play Requiem (1982) about an Irish girl who sets herself apart from her Catholic and family roots in search of herself, the play Dear Nobody (1993), a radio adaptation of her book of the same name, and The Snow Queen (1994), a Radio play implementation of the art fairy tale The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen with Diana Rigg and Dirk Bogarde as speakers.

Doherty also adapted two of her novels for television: White Peak Farm for BBC One (1988) and Children of Winter for privately owned public broadcaster Channel 4 (1994). In 2001, the series Zzaap and the Word Master followed, about two children trapped in cyberspace, which was broadcast on BBC Two . In addition, all three implementations mentioned are also available on video.

She has also written several plays - both original works and adaptations of her books. These include a. Dear Nobody (first performed by the Sheffield Crucible Theater 1983), Return to the Ebro (first performed by the Manchester Library Theater in 1986), A Growing Girl's Story (Yorkshire Art Circus Tour, 1989), and Tilly Mint and the Dodo Dac (Doncaster Schools Trip).

Opera and music

As with her radio adaptations, Berlie Doherty has both created new texts and adapted her own works for your three opera productions. The libretti come from her, the music from Richard Chew ( Daughter of the Sea , performed in 2004 at the Crucible Theater Sheffield), from Dukas, Saint-Saens, Liadov and Julian Philips ( The Magician's Cat , a commission for the Welsh National Opera , 2004) and again Julian Philips alone ( Wild Cat , also a commission from the Welsh National Opera, 2007).

Three works were also written to be accompanied by music in the context of live performances. Specifically, it concerns Claude Debussy's string quartet in G minor (by the way, his only string quartet) as inspiration for Midnight Man , Bedřich Smetana's string quartet No. 1 as inspiration for Blue John and Leoš Janáček's string quartet No. 1 based on Leo Tolstoy's novella Die Kreutzersonata as inspiration for The Spell of the Toadman .

reception

Her book The Magical Bicycle , published in 1995 and in which Christian Birmingham made his debut as an illustrator, was among others. a. nominated for the Kurt Maschler Award , named after the publisher by Erich Kästner , with 1,000 GBP .

In 2002 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Derby for her achievements as a writer .

20 years after the publication of her early work White Peak Farm , she received the Phoenix Award from the non-profit organization “Children's Literature Association” (ChLA) . The award is open to English-language books that did not receive any major awards when they were first published 20 years before the award ceremony.

Her books have been translated into over 20 languages.

Private life

Berlie Doherty lives with Alan Brown, who is also an author of children's books. She is the mother of three children: Joanna, Tim and Sally. Her household also includes an almost black cat named “Midnight”. At the time of the 2004 Phoenix Award, Doherty was on the verge of becoming a grandmother for the first time through her son's wife.

She basically lives as a vegetarian, but continues to eat fish.

In addition to her literary work, Berlie Doherty is also musically active: she plays - according to her own information rather poorly - the penny whistle and the fiddle in a céilí band. She is also learning piano and violin.

Trivia

The renaming of her originally under the title White Peak Farm in Jennie of WHite Peak Farm was done for pragmatic reasons, as Berlie Doherty said during her acceptance speech at the 2004 Phoenix Award ceremony: While looking for a book about hiking routes in Derbyshire, she found between Maps and bed and breakfast travel guides also wrote her novel. When her publisher approached her with the idea of ​​a new edition, she suggested the change from a local to a personal title that was ultimately completed.

In many of her books, grandmothers appear as important and strong characters. However, these characters are not based on their own biographical experience, as all of their four grandparents died before they were born. She herself called this circumstance a "terrible deprivation" ( English " I think that's a terrible deprivation " ).

Awards

Profits

  • Burnley Express / National and Provincial Children's Book of the Year (Burnley Award): 1987 ( Granny was a Buffer Girl )
  • Boston Globe-Horn Book Award (USA): 1988 ( Granny was a Buffer Girl )
  • Carnegie Medal : 1986 (for Granny was a Buffer Girl ), 1991 ( Dear Nobody )
  • NASEN Special Educational Needs Children's Book Award: 1995 ( The Golden Bird )
  • Oppenheim Gold Seal Award : ( The Magical Bicycle )
  • Phoenix Award : 2004 ( White Peak Farm )
  • Sankei Award (Japan): 1994 ( Dear Nobody )
  • Talkies Award : 1999 ( The Water Babies )
  • Writers' Guild Award: "Best Children's Play" 1991 ( Dear Nobody ), "Best Children's Book" 1996 ( Daughter of the Sea )

Nominations

Works (selection)

Books for children and young adults

  • White Peak Farm. Methuen, London 1984. (later republished under the title Jeannie of White Peak Farm ).
  • Granny was a buffer girl. Lions, 1986. (German dove in summer light. 1989, ISBN 3-8000-2735-6 ).
  • Dear Nobody. 1991. (German Dear Nobody, 1997, ISBN 3-423-78274-9 ).
  • Daughter of the Sea. Hamish Hamilton, London 1996.
  • The Snow Queen. (Adaptation by Hans Christian Andersen )
  • Holly Starcross. Puffin Books, London 2001.
  • Deep Secret. Puffin Books, London 2004.
  • Abela: The Girl Who Saw Lions. Andersen Press, London 2007.
  • The Company of Ghosts. 2013.
  • Far from Home: The Sisters of Street Child. 2015.

Picture books and short stories

  • Tilly Mint and the Dodo. 1988.
  • The Magical Bicycle. HarperCollins , 1995. (illustrated by Christian Birmingham ).
  • The Midnight Man. 1998.
  • Fairy Tales. Walker Books, London 2002. (illustrated by Jane Ray ).
  • Blue John. 2003.
  • The Starburster. 2004.
  • Jinnie Ghost. 2005.
  • The Humming Machine. 2006.
  • Peak Dale Farm: A Calf Called Valentine. 2009.
  • The Three Princes. 2011.

Adult books

  • Requiem. 1991.
  • The Vinegar Jar. 1994.

Others

  • The Drowned Village . Radio play. BBC, 1980.
  • Requiem . Radio play. BBC, 1982.
  • Dear Nobody . Radio play. BBC, 1993.
  • Walking on Air . Poetry book. 1993.
  • The Snow Queen . Radio play. BBC, 1994.
  • The Forsaken Merman and Other Story Poems . Poetry book. 1998.
  • The Water Babies . Radio play. BBC, 1998.
  • Daughter of the Sea . Libretto for children's opera. 2004.
  • The Magician's Cat . Libretto for children's opera. 2004. (with music by Julian Philips)
  • Wildcat . Libretto for children's opera. 2007. (with music by Julian Philips)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Berlie Doherty: Berlie Doherty. In: literature.britishcouncil.org. Retrieved November 15, 2018 .
  2. ↑ HarperCollins Publishers (Australia): Berlie Doherty ( Memento November 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). In: harpercollins.com.au , (English).
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Berlie Doherty ( Memento from February 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). In: contemporarywriters.com , (English).
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Berlie Doherty: Dreams and Visions. (PDF) Children's Literature Association, accessed November 15, 2018 .
  5. ↑ a b c d e f Walker Books - Berlie Doherty. In: walker.co.uk. Retrieved November 15, 2018 .
  6. ↑ a b c Berlie Doherty: Berlie Doherty - Plays on other media. In: berliedoherty.com. December 25, 2016, accessed November 15, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Berlie Doherty: I Remember and Let's Pretend. In: Something About the Author - Autobiographical Series Vol 16. Gale Press 1993, cited above. based on: Autobiography ( Memento of October 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). In: berliedoherty.com , (English).
  8. ↑ Berlie Doherty. In: arena-verlag.de. Retrieved November 15, 2018 .
  9. ↑ Adèle Geras: Review: Abela by Berlie Doherty. In: theguardian.com. December 2, 2007, accessed November 15, 2018 .
  10. ^ Meet Berlie Doherty ( Memento from October 19, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). In: peak-experience.org.uk , (English).
  11. ↑ Berlie Doherty - A Beautiful Place for a Murder. In: berliedoherty.com. January 10, 2017, accessed November 15, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Q&A INTERVIEW WITH BERLIE DOHERTY ON FAR FROM HOME. In: booksforkeeps.co.uk. January 10, 2015, accessed November 15, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Berlie Doherty: Berlie Doherty - Walking on Air. In: berliedoherty.com. December 25, 2016, accessed November 15, 2018 .
  14. ^ Berlie Doherty: Berlie Doherty - Poetry. In: berliedoherty.com. Retrieved November 15, 2018 .
  15. ↑ Kilner, Celia / Doherty, Berlie: Poem - 'Here lies a city's heart ...', 1997. In: public-art.shu.ac.uk. Retrieved November 15, 2018 .
  16. ↑ Berlie Doherty: Berlie Doherty - Short stories. In: berliedoherty.com. Retrieved November 15, 2018 .
  17. ↑ Web wizard: Berlie Doherty - Information on plays. In: berliedoherty.com. December 25, 2016, accessed November 15, 2018 .
  18. ↑ Berlie Doherty radio drama. In: suttonelms.org.uk. December 28, 2015, accessed November 15, 2018 .
  19. ^ Berlie Doherty: Berlie Doherty - Opera. In: berliedoherty.com. December 25, 2016, accessed November 15, 2018 .
  20. ^ Berlie Doherty: Berlie Doherty - Stories with Music. In: berliedoherty.com. December 28, 2016, accessed November 15, 2018 .
  21. ^ Kurt Maschler Awards. In: bookawards.bizland.com. Retrieved November 15, 2018 .
  22. ↑ a b Children's Books - Articles - Illustrating Narnia - BfK No. 113. In: booksforkeeps.co.uk. Retrieved November 15, 2018 .
  23. ↑ a b Berlie Doherty. In: davidhigham.co.uk. Retrieved November 15, 2018 .
  24. ^ Diana F. Marks: Children's Book Award Handbook . Libraries Unlimited, Exeter 2006, pp. 341 .
  25. ^ Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards - Winners and Honor Books 1967 to present ( Memento December 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). In: hbook.com , (English).
  26. ↑ Celebrating the Carnegie and Greenaway Winners 1986 ( Memento of October 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), in: carnegiegreenaway.org.uk (English)
  27. ↑ Celebrating the Carnegie and Greenaway Winners 1991 ( Memento of October 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), in: carnegiegreenaway.org.uk (English)
  28. ↑ ALMA
  29. ↑ BayNews November 2003. In: bayviews.org. December 11, 2003, accessed November 15, 2018 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Doherty, Berlie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hollingsworth, Berlie (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British author for children and young adults
DATE OF BIRTH November 6, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Knotty Ash , Liverpool