Jan Mark

Jan Mark
File:Jan Mark British author.jpg
Born	Janet Marjorie Brisland (1943-06-22)22 June 1943 Welwyn Garden City, England
Died	16 January 2006(2006-01-16) (aged 62) Oxford, England
Nationality	British
Genre	Children's and young adult
Notable works	Thunder and Lightnings (1976), Handles (1983)
Notable awards	Carnegie Medal

Jan Mark (22 June 1943 – 16 January 2006) was a British writer best known for children's books. In all she wrote more than fifty novels and plays and many anthologised short stories. She won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject, both for Thunder and Lightnings (1976) and for Handles (1983). She was also a "Highly Commended" runner-up for Nothing To Be Afraid Of (1980).

Life

Janet Marjorie Brisland was born in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, and was raised and educated in Ashford in Kent. She was a secondary school teacher between 1965 and 1971 and became a full-time writer in 1974. She was married once and divorced, and was survived by her daughter Isobel and son Alex.

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

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

Jan Mark was popular in Flanders, Belgium, where she participated in an educational project to stimulate teachers of English into using teenage fiction in the classroom. Her Flemish friends devoted a website to her and to her work.

Jan Mark died suddenly at her home in Oxford from meningitis-related septicaemia in January 2006, aged 62.

Selected works

• King John and the Abbot (2006),
• Voyager (2006) the sequel to Riding Tycho,
• Turbulence (2005)
• Robin Hood All at Sea (2005),
• Riding Tycho (2005),
• Useful Idiots (2004),
• The Eclipse of the Century (1999),
• Mr Dickens Hits Town (1999),
• The Midas Touch (1999),
• My Frog and I (1997),
• The Tale of Tobias (1996),
• They Do Things Differently There (1994),
• Fun With Mrs Thumb (1993),
• Enough Is Too Much Already (1988),
• Zeno Was Here (1988),
• Fun (1988),
• Trouble Half-way (1986),
• Fur (1986),
• Handles (1985),
• Feet and Other Stories (1983),
• Aquarius (1982),
• The Dead Letter Box (1982),
• Nothing To Be Afraid Of (1981),
• Hairs in the Palm of the Hand (1981),
• Divide and Rule (1980),
• The Ennead (1978),
• Under the Autumn Garden (1977),
• Thunder and Lightnings (1976),

External links

• Jan Mark at Walker Books
• Jan Mark at Fantastic Fiction
• Jan Mark's Flemish fansite Archived 16 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine
• Jan Mark resources and information
• Jan Mark at Library of Congress, with 25 library catalogue records