Robert Swindells
Robert Edward "Bob" Swindells (born March 20, 1939 in Bradford , England ) is an English writer in the field of children's and youth literature . With over 60 works he has won numerous awards, including the renowned Carnegie Medal . His publication Eiskalt was made into a short television series in 1997 and broadcast on the BBC .
Life
Robert Swindells was the first of five children of salesman Albert Henry Swindells and his wife Alice. Robert's earliest childhood was shaped by the Second World War, after the war he felt cramped in her small house with her now four siblings. He could read before he started school and if he retired to a quiet corner with a book, he could immerse himself so deeply in fantasy worlds that he would no longer have noticed an erupting chaos. Books were a means for him to escape his surroundings and his ordinary life.
At the age of eleven, he missed his Eleven-plus exam because his parents did not have the time, knowledge, and resources to adequately prepare him for it, and he was unable to attend grammar school . Nevertheless, his English teacher encouraged him to write and convinced him to enter a national writing competition with an essay, which he won.
After missing the exam, he was terribly disappointed and no longer got on with his father, but he followed the good advice to forget his ardent desire to become a teacher. At fifteen he left school and worked until the age of 26 in offices and factories Bradford: three years as a proofreader's assistant ( copy holder ), three years later as a clerk in the advertising department of the newspaper "Telegraph & Argus", after two years as a machine operator at "Hepworth & Grandage". When his relationship with his father got worse and worse and his mother became ill, he went to the Royal Air Force for three years at the age of seventeen , two of which he was stationed in Germany. Shortly afterwards he married Cathy, two daughters Linda and Jill came a short distance apart.
Finally, by chance, he met a man who was still training to be a teacher at the age of 35. Though he graduated well and he didn't, it was what motivated him to enroll in an evening class in human biology at Bradford College in 1967 . At this school he felt in his element like never before and graduated with an O level .
Inspired by this success, in the following years he took further evening courses in English literature, religious studies, the British constitution and specialist knowledge and in the end had the five O levels that he needed for training as a teacher. He quit his job as a machine operator and began training as a teacher at the Huddersfield Polytechnic in 1969 , finally turning his lifelong dream into reality. During his studies he found an interest in children's and youth literature and this made him want to write books for young people as well. He suggested to his student advisors that they write a children's book instead of a thesis. This idea was accepted and he graduated from it at the age of 33 in 1972. He sent the manuscript to the nearest publisher and within a week it was accepted. His first book When Darkness Comes was published in 1973, and more followed soon after.
Swindells was given a full-time teaching post and then worked for eight years at two Bradford elementary schools while writing. His first marriage fell apart, and six years later he remarried at the age of 40. He finally stopped teaching in 1980 and devoted himself entirely to writing. The first few years were difficult, but in 1984 he got his first major success with Brother in the Land . Soon afterwards he won the first of numerous prizes with his books.
In his books he describes the alternative realities that fascinated him as a child for new generations of young people. All his life he was anti-nuclear and pro-environmental, and these issues are reflected in many of his books. They are full of social issues, but they are never patronizing, rather they encourage the reader to study the story.
In 1988 he received a Masters degree from the School of Peace Studies at Bradford University. In elections to the Bradford Council, he ran as a representative of the Green Party . According to his own statement, his greatest wish is "to experience the day on which every child in every place will enjoy a childhood without hunger, fear, war or any kind of deprivation".
Robert Swindells has since given up writing after 67 publications, he still lives with his wife Brenda near Bradford in Oxenhope, Yorkshire.
Awards
- 1988 Master's Degree (MA) in Peace Studies, Bradford College
- 2017 Honorary Fellow of Bradford College
Prices
-
Red House Children's Book Award
- 1985: Brother in the Land
- 1990: Room 13
-
Carnegie Medal
- 1993: Stone Cold
-
Sheffield Children's Book Award
- 1994: Stone Cold
- 1996: Unbeliever
- 1999: Abomination
-
Kinder- en Jeugdjury voor het boek in Vlaanderen (KJJ)
- 1995: Het wenende woud (The Secret of Weeping Wood)
-
Angus Book Award
- 1998: Unbeliever
Works
| Original title | German title | Published |
|---|---|---|
| When Darkness Comes | 1973 | |
| A Candle in the Night (A Candle in the Dark) |
Flint and smoke alarm | 1974 |
| World eater | The world eater | 1976 |
| Voyage to Valhalla | 1977 | |
| The very special baby | 1977 | |
| The Ice Palace (Ice Palace) |
1977 | |
| Dragons Live Forever | 1978 | |
| The Weather Clerk | 1979 | |
| The Moonpath and Other Stories (The Moonpath and Other Tales of the Bizarre) |
1979 | |
| Norah's Ark | 1979 | |
| Norah's Shark | 1979 | |
| Ghost Ship to Ganymede | 1980 | |
| Norah and the Whale | 1981 | |
| Norah to the Rescue | 1981 | |
| The Wheaton Book of Science Fiction Stories | 1982 | |
| Brother in the Land (Fallout) |
1984 | |
| The Thousand Eyes of Night | 1985 | |
| The Ghost Messengers | 1986 | |
| Staying up | 1986 | |
| Mavis Davis | 1988 | |
| The Postbox Mystery | 1988 | |
| A serpent's tooth | 1989 | |
| Follow a shadow | The shadow that I banished | 1989 |
| Night school | 1989 | |
| Room 13 | 1989 | |
| In addition, 4 Zoe | Dash lead Zoe | 1990 |
| Tim Kipper | 1990 | |
| Dracula's Castle | 1991 | |
| Hydra | Hydra | 1991 |
| Rolf and Rosie | 1992 | |
| You Can't Say I'm Crazy | 1992 | |
| The Go-Ahead Gang | 1992 | |
| Inside the worm | 1993 | |
| Sam and Sue and Lavatory Lou | 1993 | |
| The Secret of Weeping Wood (The Outfit # 1) |
1993 | |
| The Siege of Frimly Prim | 1993 | |
| We Didn't Mean to, Honest! (The Outfit # 2) |
1993 | |
| Stone cold | Freezing | 1994 |
| Timesnatch | 1994 | |
| Kidnap at Denton Farm (The Outfit # 3) |
1994 | |
| The Muckitups | 1995 | |
| The Ghosts of Givenham Keep (The Outfit # 4) |
1995 | |
| Unbeliever | 1995 | |
| Jacqueline Hyde | 1996 | |
| Last bus | 1996 | |
| Hurricane Summer (World War II Trilogy) |
1997 | |
| Nightmare stairs | Don't dismount | 1997 |
| Peril in the Mist (The Outfit # 5) |
1997 | |
| Smash! | Smash! | 1997 |
| Subscription | Walls of silence | 1998 |
| The Strange Tale of Ragger Bill (The Outfit # 6) |
1998 | |
| Dosh | A new beginning | 1999 |
| Roger's War (World War II Trilogy) |
1999 | |
| The Orchard Book of Vikings (with Peter Utton) |
2000 | |
| The Orchard Book of Egyptian Gods and Pharaohs | Gods, temples, pharaohs | 2000 |
| The Orchard Book of Stories from Ancient Egypt | 2000 | |
| Invisible! | 2000 | |
| Doodlebug Alley (World War II Trilogy) |
2000 | |
| A wish for wings | 2001 | |
| Wrecked | 2001 | |
| Blitzed | 2002 | |
| No Angels | 2003 | |
| Ruby Tanya | 2004 | |
| Branded | 2005 | |
| Snapshot | 2005 | |
| Snakebite | 2006 | |
| In the Nick of Time | 2007 | |
| burnout | 2007 | |
| The Shade of Hettie Daynes | 2008 | |
| Knife-Edge | 2008 | |
| Shrapnel | 2009 | |
| The First Hunter | 2009 | |
| Just a bit of fun | 2009 | |
| blackout | 2009 | |
| Dan's War | 2010 | |
| A Skull in Shadows Lane | 2012 | |
| Trick or Treat | 2012 | |
| The deep end | 2013 |
Translations
From the "Alfie" series by Gunilla Bergström (German " Willi Wiberg "):
| title | Published |
|---|---|
| Alfie and His Secret Friend | 1979 |
| Who'll Save Alfie Atkins? | 1979 |
| Alfie and the Monster | 1979 |
| You're a Sly One, Alfie Atkins | 1979 |
| Is That a Monster, Alfie Atkins? | 1989 |
Retelling
From William Shakespeare :
| title | Published |
|---|---|
| A Midsummer Night's Dream | 2011 |
| Henry V | 2011 |
Web links
- Literature by and about Robert Swindell in the catalog of the German National Library
swell
- ^ Stone Cold (1997). IMDb.com, Inc., accessed May 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Thomson Gale: Swindells, Robert (Edward) 1939-. Encyclopedia.com, accessed May 19, 2019 .
- ^ Robert (Edward) Swindell's (1939–) Biography. Web Solutions, LLC., Accessed May 18, 2019 .
- ^ Honorary Fellow Robert Swindells. Bradford College, accessed May 18, 2019 (with a picture of the recipient).
- ^ Children's Book Award - Past Winners. The Federation of Children's Book Groups, accessed May 14, 2019 .
- ^ The CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Awards - The Awards. CILIP The library and information association, accessed May 12, 2019 .
- ^ Sheffield Children's Book Award - Winners' Archive Young Adult. Sheffield City Council, accessed May 12, 2019 .
- ↑ Lexicon van de jeugdliteratuur. Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren (DBNL), accessed on May 19, 2019 (Dutch).
- ↑ Angus Book Award - Previous Shortlists and Winners ( Memento of the original from June 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed June 1, 2009)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Swindells, Robert |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Swindells, Bob |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 20, 1939 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bradford |