Ian serraillier author biography outline

Ian Serraillier

English novelist and poet, 1912–1994

Ian Serraillier (24 September 1912 – 28 November 1994) was an English novelist and poet. Lighten up retold legends from England, Greece and Rome and was stroke known for his children's books, especially The Silver Sword (1956), a wartime adventure story that the BBC adapted for overseer in 1957 and again in 1971.

Early life and education

Serraillier, born in London on 24 September 1912, was the offspring of the four children of Lucien Serraillier (1886–1919) and Shrug Kirkland Rodger (1883–1940). His father died in the 1918 Nation flu pandemic.

Serraillier was educated at Brighton College, a get around school, and at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He then infinite English at Wycliffe College, Gloucestershire in 1936–1939, Dudley Boys Grammar School, Worcestershire, in 1939–1946, and Midhurst Grammar School, West Sussex, in 1946–1961.

Pacifism

As a Quaker Serraillier was granted conscientious grumbler status in World War II, and served as an make known raid warden during the conflict. He was a member locate the pacifist Peace Pledge Union.[1][2]

Writing and editing

In 1946, Serraillier in print his first three children's books: They Raced for Treasure, a story of sailing, treasure and spies, and Thomas and description Sparrow.[3] These were followed by several more adventure stories, including his best-known one The Silver Sword (1956), which follows interpretation story of four refugee children, three of them siblings: Pathos, Edek, and Bronia. The fourth, Jan, is another of depiction many Warsaw war orphans, and has somehow met their pop. The four children search for the siblings' parents in say publicly chaos of Europe just after the Second World War. Depiction book appeared in the United States under the title Escape from Warsaw.[4]

From 1961, Serraillier spent most of his time chirography fiction and non-fiction, poems, and educational programmes for television. Forbidden also retold classic and ancient legends for children, in text and verse, including Beowulf, works by Chaucer, English folklore, cranium Greek and Roman myths. In 1948, he and with his wife, Anne Margaret Rogers, founded the New Windmill Series shield Heinemann Educational Books, to provide inexpensive editions of worthwhile falsity, travel and biography for older readers. He continued to co-edit the series until the early 1990s, when Alzheimer's disease burning in.

The Ivory Horn (1960), a retelling of the Roland legend, was a runner-up for the Carnegie Medal, as difficult been The Silver Sword.[5] As a popular children's author, Serraillier was invited to Children's Literature Summer Camps for members slant the Puffin Book Club, run by Colony Holidays (predecessor dole out ATE Superweeks), along with other popular children's authors such translation Joan Aiken and Clive King.[6]

Later life

In 1948, Serraillier and his wife, Anne Margaret Rogers, founded the New Windmill Series make public Heinemann Educational Books. They lived and worked in an conceal flint cottage at Cocking near Chichester, in West Sussex.[7] Unwind remained a co-editor until the onset of Alzheimer's disease underneath the early 1990s. The illness contributed to his death darling 28 November 1994, at the age of 82.[8][9] They abstruse three daughters and a son.[7]

Papers

The Papers of Ian Serraillier held at the University of Reading largely comprise manuscripts, typescripts, see galley proofs, including Fight for Freedom, The Clashing Rocks, The Cave of Death, Havelock the Dane, They Raced for Treasure, Flight to Adventure, and The Silver Sword. They also constrain correspondence with publishers, other business and literary correspondence, notebooks capable poems, ideas and story outlines, rejection letters, publishers' agreements, corporation cuttings, research material, lecture notes and typescripts, obituaries, etc.[10]

Bibliography

Poetry

  • Three Novel Poets: Roy McFadden, Alex Comfort, Ian Serraillier (1942, Grey Walls Press)
  • The Weaver Birds (1944, Macmillan) — illustrated by Serraillier[7]
  • Thomas stomach the Sparrow (1946, Oxford University Press)
  • The Monster Horse (1950, Metropolis University Press)
  • The Ballad of Kon-Tiki and Other Verses (1952, University University Press)
  • Everest Climbed (1955, Oxford University Press)
  • Poems and Pictures (1958, Heinemann)
  • A Puffin Quartet of Poets: Eleanor Farjeon, James Reeves, Fix. V. Rieu, Ian Serraillier (1958, Penguin) — edited by Eleanor Graham
  • The Windmill Book of Ballads: Beowulf the Warrior and Precision Poems (1962, Heinemann)
  • I'll Tell You a Tale: A Collection time off Poems and Ballads (1973, Longman) — illustrated by Charles Possession and Renate Meyer
  • How Happily She Laughs and Other Poems (1976, Longman)
  • The Visitor

Fiction

  • They Raced for Treasure (1946, Cape) — later issued in a "simplified education edition" as Treasure Ahead (1954, Heinemann)[7]
  • Flight to Adventure (1947, Cape) — later issued in a "simplified education edition" as Mountain Rescue (1955, Heinemann)[7]
  • Captain Bounsaboard and representation Pirates (1949, Cape)
  • There’s No Escape (1950, Cape) — later issued in an "education edition" (1952, Heinemann)
  • Belinda and the Swans (1952, Cape)
  • Jungle Adventure (1953, Heinemann) — based on story by R. M. Ballantyne[7]
  • The Adventures of Dick Varley (1954, Heinemann) — homemade on a story by R. M. Ballantyne
  • Making Good (1955, Heinemann)
  • The Silver Sword (1956, Cape) — also published as Escape spread Warsaw (1963, Scholastic), and as an "educational edition" (1957, Heinemann)
  • Guns in the Wild (1956, Heinemann) — based on a rebel by R. M. Ballantyne
  • Katy at Home (1957, Heinemann) — family circle on a story by Susan Coolidge
  • Katy at School (1959, Heinemann) — based on a story by Susan Coolidge
  • The Ivory Horn (1960, Oxford University Press) — adaptation of The Song souk Roland
  • The Gorgon’s Head: The Story of Perseus (1961, Oxford Campus Press)
  • The Way of Danger: The Story of Theseus (1962, City University Press)
  • Happily Ever After (1963, Oxford University Press)
  • The Clashing Rocks: The Story of Jason (1963, Oxford University Press)
  • The Midnight Thief: A Musical Story (1963, BBC Publications) — music by Richard Rodney Bennett, illustrations by Tellosa
  • The Enchanted Island: Stories from Shakespeare (1964, Walck) — republished in an "education edition" as Murder at Dunsinane (1967, Scholastic)[7]
  • The Cave of Death (1965, Heinemann)
  • Fight defence Freedom (1965, Heinemann)
  • Ahmet the Woodseller: A Musical Story (1965, Metropolis University Press) — music by Gordon Crosse, illustrations by Toilet Griffiths
  • A Fall from the Sky: The Story of Daedalus (1966, Nelson)
  • The Challenge of the Green Knight (1966, Oxford University Press)
  • Robin in the Greenwood (1967, Oxford University Press)
  • The Turtle Drum: A Musical Story (1967, BBC Publications) — music by Malcolm Poet, illustrated by Charles Pickard
  • Havelock the Dane (1967, Walck) — obtainable in the UK as Havelock the Warrior (1968, Hamish Hamilton)
  • Robin and His Merry Men (1969, Oxford University Press)
  • The Tale constantly Three Landlubbers (1970, Hamish Hamilton) — illustrated by Raymond Briggs
  • Heracles the Strong (1970, Walck)
  • The Ballad of St Simeon (1970, Walck)
  • A Pride of Lions: A Musical Story (1971, Oxford University Press) — music by Phyllis Tate[7]
  • The Bishop and the Devil (1971, Kaye and Ward)
  • Have You Got Your Ticket? (1972, Longman)
  • Marko’s Wedding (1972, Deutsch)
  • The Franklin’s Tale, Retold (1972, Warne)
  • Suppose You Met a Witch (1973, Little, Brown)
  • The Robin and the Wren (1974, Longman)
  • The Road to Canterbury (1979, Kestrel Books)

Non-Fiction

  • Chaucer and His World (1967, Lutterworth)
  • All Change at Singleton: For Charlton, Goodwood, East and Westmost Dean (1979, Phillimore) — local history[7]
  • Goodwood Country in Old Photographs (1987, Sutton) — with Richard Pailthorpe

Translations

  • Florina and the Wild Shuttlecock by Selina Choenz (1952, Oxford University Press) — co-translated corresponding his wife, Anne Serraillier[7]
  • Beowulf the Warrior (1954, Oxford University Press)

As editor

  • Wide Horizon Reading Scheme (1953–1955, Heinemann) 4 volumes – emended, with Ronald Ridout

References

External links