Jan Mark

Jan Mark (1946-2006) was born in Hertfordshire during the Second World War, after her pregnant mother had been evacuated from London. She moved around a lot as a child but eventually settled in Oxford. Jan was one of Britain’s most distinguished authors of books for young people. 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 twice awarded the Carnegie Medal and also won the Penguin Guardian Award, the Observer Teenage Fiction Prize and the Angel Award for Fiction. Her many titles include Thunder and Lightnings, Lady Long Legs and The Snow Maze. The Museum Book, Jan’s last completed work, was published by Walker Books in 2007.