Elaine Horseman

Elaine Horseman , nee Elaine Hall , (born November 23, 1925 in Lichfield , Staffordshire , † April 1999 in Bristol ) was a British writer and teacher. She published three children's books in the 1960s that deal with the experiences of several children with a magic book .

Life

Elaine Horseman was the daughter of Olive E. Bowey and Harold Hall, a choir vicar , and grew up as the second oldest child of nine siblings in humble circumstances. She attended the Friary School in Lichfield, studied at the University of Birmingham and from 1944 taught at a primary school in Shenstone , Staffordshire. In 1950 she married the computer application engineer Leslie A. Horseman, with whom she moved to nearby Bristol and had two sons: Stephen Thomas and Christopher Michael. Elaine Horseman worked as a primary school teacher at the Henleaze School in Bristol until 1962, after which she devoted herself exclusively to writing her books.

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Elaine Horseman began writing short stories when she was over 30 years old. She received her first recognition with the broadcast of her short story "The Almond Tree" on the morning program of the BBC Home Service . Her debut novel Hubble's Bubble was a huge hit in England and was published in both Germany and France , Sweden , Denmark , Finland , Spain and Portugal in the late 1960s . A fourth Hubble book, The Hubble's Winter Magic , was never finished due to the writer's illness.

The Hubble trilogy

The main setting for the three novels is a fictional little cathedral town called Stoweminster. The twelve-year-old science enthusiast Alarich and his sister, the eight-year-old, somewhat stubborn Sarah Hubble, live here in a large house from the 16th century, right on Domplatz. The parents of the two children were killed in a car accident, and the orphans have been living with their history-mad and anti-progressive grandfather, the good-natured housekeeper Carry Bowles, called Bowley, and their adult son Harry. In the first novel, Magic in the Old House , the Hubbles receive a visit from Bowley's three nieces and nephews over the summer holidays: ten-year-old Charlotte, her twin brother Jonathan and four-year-old Peter Vaughan. The initially unwelcome visitors quickly discover the secret of the two Hubble children: In the basement of the gossip-addicted neighbor Miss Trinket, which can be reached through an underground secret passage from a tower in the Hubble's garden, they carry out “experiments” be able to transform into animals, fly or travel back in time. The siblings are guided by an old book that contains spells and recipes for potions , but insufficiently describes their effects. Alaric had bought it in the marketplace from a strange little man whom he never saw again afterwards. After their discovery, the Hubbles and the Vaughans founded the "Research Club" (in the English original "the Boffins' Club"), to which they finally accepted their grandfather. Together they experience some adventures that develop mainly due to the always somewhat unpredictable magic . In the second novel, Magic Journey to the Stone Age , they accidentally bring a young hippopotamus with them from the past, which causes a stir in the small town. The third novel The Hubbles and the Robot is about a journey through time into the future .

Works

• Hubble's Bubble . Illustrated by John Sergeant, Chatto & Windus , London 1964

• Sorcery in the old house . Illustrated v. Karlheinz Gross . In Dt. transfer v. Sybil Countess Schönfeldt , Union , Stuttgart 1971
• Sorcery in the old house . Illustrated v. Karlheinz Groß u. Sabine Wilharm . In Dt. transfer v. Sybil Gräfin Schönfeldt, Carlsen , Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-938899-38-0 (new edition in the ZEIT edition "Fantastic stories for young readers")

• The Hubble's Treasure Hunt . Illustrated by John Sergeant, Chatto & Windus, London 1965

• Magic journey to the stone age . Illustrated v. Karlheinz Gross. In Dt. transfer v. Sybil Countess Schönfeldt, Union, Stuttgart 1973

• The Hubble And The Robot . Illustrated by John Sergeant, Chatto & Windus, London 1968 (not translated into German)

See also

• Fantastic children's and youth literature

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See author information on the back flap of Elaine Horseman: The Hubbles and the Robot . Illustrated by John Sergeant, Chatto & Windus, London 1968.
2. ↑ Cf. Robert Reginald , Douglas Menville and Mary A. Burgess: Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature: A Checklist, 1700-1974: Volume Two of Two, contains Contemporary Science Fiction Authors II , Detroit 1979, p. 942.
3. ↑ Elaine Horseman: Sarah changée en souris . Traduit de l'anglais by Isabelle Lambert . Illustrations de Lucie Hutin , Gallimard, Paris 1967.
4. ↑ Elaine Horseman: Bubbel-Klubben . Illustrerat av Lisbeth Holmberg . Översatt av Per Kellberg , Bonnier, Stockholm 1966.
5. ↑ Elaine Horseman: Oldriks trolddrik . På dansk ved Christopher Maaløe . Illustreret af John Sergeant, Fremad, København 1968.
6. ↑ Elaine Horseman: Kuplii kuplii . Suomalainen Aila Nissinen . Kuvittaja John Sergeant, Otava, Helsinki 1966.
7. ^ Elaine Horseman: Las fantásticas aventuras de Alarico . Traducción por Agustín Gil Lasierra . Ilustraciones de John Sergeant, Noguer, Barcelona 1965.
8. ↑ Cf. Sybil Countess Schönfeldt: "Zauberei im alten Haus", in: ZEIT online, December 4, 2008, at: http://www.zeit.de/2008/50/KE-50-Zauberei-Rezension (accessed on February 10, 2013).