Jan Mark

January Mark , pseudonym of Janet Marjorie Brisland (* 22. June 1943 in Welwyn Garden City , Hertfordshire , England ; † 16th January 2006 in Oxford ) was a British author of youth literature and science fiction - writer .

biography

Janet Marjorie Brisland was born in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, in 1943 and grew up in Kent , where she was also educated. She was a high school teacher between 1965 and 1971 and became a full-time author in 1974. She was married once, divorced, and had a daughter and a son.

In total she wrote more than fifty novels and plays, as well as many anthologized short stories. She won the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals annual Carnegie Medal , which recognizes the best children's book of the year by a British author, for Thunder and Lightnings (1976) and for Handles (1983). She was also a "highly acclaimed" runner-up for Nothing To Be Afraid Of (1980). She has won the Carnegie Medal twice - no one has won three Carnegies so far (as of 2020).

Mark is known for her short stories, which are succinct and show imaginative language usage. She also wrote novels about seemingly ordinary children in contemporary settings such as Thunder and Lightnings, as well as science fiction novels playing with their own rules in their own universes, such as The Ennead . Her last works include the young adult novels The Eclipse of the Century and Useful Idiots .

The title Thunder and Lightnings , a story set in rural Norfolk , refers to the British RAF jet fighter English Electric Lightning and in turn inspired the name of a website that documents British military aircraft in the Cold War .

Jan Mark was popular in Flanders, Belgium, where she took part in an educational project to encourage English teachers to use youth literature in the classroom. Her Flemish friends dedicated a website to her and her work.

Jan Mark died unexpectedly of meningitis- related sepsis in her Oxford home in January 2006 at the age of 62 .

Bibliography (selection)

Ennead

• The Ennead . tape 1 . Crowell, 1978, ISBN 0-690-03872-0 .
  • Die Welt aus Stein , Goldmann, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-442-23457-3 , translator Eva Malsch
• Divide and Rule . tape 2 . Crowell, 1980, ISBN 0-690-04012-1 .
• Aquarius . tape 3 . Kestrel Books, 1982, ISBN 0-7226-5793-5 .
  • Aquarius , Loewe, Bindlach 1987, ISBN 3-7855-2109-X , translator Maria Rosken

Riding Tycho

• Riding Tycho . tape 1 . Macmillan Children's Books, 2005, ISBN 0-333-99773-5 .
• Voyager . tape 2 . Macmillan Children's Books, 2006, ISBN 0-333-99774-3 .

More novels

• Thunder and Lightnings . Cromwell, 1976, ISBN 0-690-03901-8 .
• Under the Autumn Garden . Kestrel Books, 1977, ISBN 0-7226-5347-6 .
• Hairs in the palm of the hand . Kestrel Books, 1981, ISBN 0-7226-5728-5 .
• Nothing To Be Afraid Of . Harper & Row, 1981, ISBN 0-06-024087-3 .
• The Dead Letter Box . H. Hamilton, 1982, ISBN 0-241-10804-7 .
• Feet and Other Stories . Penguin Books, 1983, ISBN 0-7226-5839-7 .
• Handles . Atheneum, 1983, ISBN 0-689-31140-0 .
• For . Walker Books, 1986, ISBN 0-7445-0478-3 .
• Trouble half-way . Atheneum, 1986, ISBN 0-689-31210-5 .
• Fun . Viking Kestrel, 1983, ISBN 0-670-82457-7 .
• Zeno Was Here . Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1988, ISBN 0-374-29664-2 .
• Enough Is Too Much Already . Bodley Head, 1988, ISBN 0-370-31094-2 .
• Fun with Mrs Thumb . Candlewick Press, 1993, ISBN 1-56402-247-1 .
• They Do Things Differently There . The Bodley Head, 1994, ISBN 0-370-31943-5 .
• The sighting . Puffin, 1999, ISBN 0-14-037865-0 .
• Mr. Dickens Hits Town . Tundra Books, 1999, ISBN 0-88776-468-1 .
• The Eclipse of the Century . Scholastic UK, 1999, ISBN 0-590-54467-5 .
• Heathrow Nights . Hodder Children's Books, 2000, ISBN 978-0-340-77411-3 .
  • Heathrow Nights , Deutscher-Taschenbuch-Verl., Munich 2003, ISBN 978-3-423-78184-8 , translator Salah Naoura
• Long Lost . MacMillan, 2002, ISBN 978-0-333-94996-2 .
  • Der Fluch der Schatten , Deutscher-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 2003, ISBN 978-3-423-62143-4 , translator Karin Schuler
• Useful idiots . David Fickling Books, 2004, ISBN 0-385-60413-0 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ David Fickling: Obituary: Jan Mark (en-GB) . In: The Guardian , January 24, 2006. Retrieved March 10, 2020. 
2. ^ "Carnegie Medal Award" . 2007. Curriculum Lab. Elihu Burritt Library. Central Connecticut State University ( CCSU ). Retrieved 2020-03-10.
3. ↑ "Since 1995 there are usually eight books on the Carnegie shortlist. CCSU lists 32" Highly Commended "runners up for the Carnegie Medal from 1966 to 2002 but only three before 1979 when the distinction became approximately annual. From 1979 there were 29" HC "Books in 24 years including Mark alone in 1980.
   • No one has won three Carnegies. Among the seven authors with two medals, six were active during 1966–2002 and all wrote at least one Highly Commended runner up, led by Anne Fine with three and Robert Westall with two.
4. ↑ Eccleshare, Julia (Ed.) '1001 Children's Books', Cassell: 2009, p. 857
5. ↑ Thunder & Lightnings
6. ^ Belgian Jan Mark website

Web links

• Literature by and about Jan Mark in the catalog of the German National Library
• January marks in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (English)
• Works by and about Jan Mark at Open Library
• Jan Mark at Walker Books
• Jan Mark at Fantastic Fiction
• Jan Mark's Flemish fansite
• Jan Mark homepage
• Obituary in The Times
• Obituary The Independent