Jan Mark (22 June 1943 - 16 January 2006) was a British author, best known as a writer for children. She was christened Janet Marjorie Brisland in Welwyn Garden City in 1943 and was raised and educated in Kent. She was a secondary school teacher between 1965 and 1971, and became a full-time writer in 1974. She wrote over fifty novels and plays and many anthologized short stories. She was divorced, and is survived by her daughter Isobel. Her son A...
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Jan Mark (22 June 1943 - 16 January 2006) was a British author, best known as a writer for children. She was christened Janet Marjorie Brisland in Welwyn Garden City in 1943 and was raised and educated in Kent. She was a secondary school teacher between 1965 and 1971, and became a full-time writer in 1974. She wrote over fifty novels and plays and many anthologized short stories. She was divorced, and is survived by her daughter Isobel. Her son Alex took his own life 8 months after her death. She won the Carnegie Medal for Thunder and Lightnings (1976) and for Handles (1983).
She is known for her acutely-observed short stories which are concise and show an imaginative use of language. She also wrote novels about seemingly ordinary children in contemporary settings, e.g. Thunder and Lightnings, as well as science fiction novels set in their own universes with their own rules, e.g. The Ennead. Her last works include the young adult novels The Eclipse of the Century and Useful Idiots....
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