Adèle Geras

FRSL
An English writer for young children, teens and adults
An English writer for young children, teens and adults
BornAdèle Daphne Weston
(1944-03-15) 15 March 1944[1]
Jerusalem
OccupationWriter
NationalityBritish
Period1975–present
GenreAdult and children's literature, poetry
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1967; died 2013)​
Children2, including Sophie Hannah
Website
adelegerasbooks.com

Adèle Daphne Geras (née Weston; born 15 March 1944)[2][3][1] FRSL is an English writer for young children, teens and adults.

Early life

Geras was born in Jerusalem, British Mandatory Palestine to British Jewish parents. Her father (later a lawyer and High Court judge in Tanganyika)[4] was in the Colonial Service and she had a varied childhood, living in countries such as Nigeria, Cyprus, Tanganyika (now the mainland part of Tanzania), Gambia and British North Borneo in a short span of time. She attended Roedean School in Brighton and then graduated from St Hilda's College, Oxford with a degree in Modern Languages. She was known for her stage and vocal talents, but decided instead to become a full-time writer.[5]

Work

Geras's first book was Tea at Mrs Manderby's, which was published in 1976. Her first full-length novel was The Girls in the Velvet Frame. She has written more than 95 books for children, young adults, and adults. Other works include Troy (shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize and Highly Commended for the Carnegie Medal) Ithaka, Happy Ever After (previously published as the Egerton Hall Trilogy), Silent Snow, Secret Snow, and A Thousand Yards of Sea.

Her novels for adults include: Facing the Light, Hester's Story, Made in Heaven, and A Hidden Life.

In December 2016 Geras appeared as a member of the team from St Hilda's College Oxford in the Christmas Special of BBC Two's University Challenge.[6]

Awards

Geras won two prizes in the United States, the Sydney Taylor Book Award for the My Grandmother's Stories and the National Jewish Book Award for Golden Windows.[7] She has also won prizes for her poetry and was a joint winner of the Smith Doorstop Poetry Pamphlet Award, offered by the publisher of that name.[8]

Personal life

Geras' husband was the Marxist academic Norman Geras; they had two daughters, the novelist and poet Sophie Hannah, and Jenny, employed at Macmillan Publishers. They married two brothers.[4]

See also

  • Paws and Whiskers – 2014 anthology that includes "Mimi's Day", a true poem which Geras wrote in 1999 about her tabby cat.[9]

References

  1. 1 2 The Library of Congress cites Cataloguing in Publication data for Pictures of the Night, provided 1992 or 1993.
      "Geras, Adèle" . Library of Congress Authorities. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
  2. ↑ Something About The Author, 177th ed., ed. Lisa Kumar, Thomson Gale, 2007, p.274
  3. ↑ The Worst It Can Be Is A Disaster: the life of Braham Murray, Braham Murray, Bloomsbury Academic, 2007, p. 30
  4. 1 2 "Adele Geras | Encyclopedia.com".
  5. ↑ "About". Adele Geras (addelegeras.com). Archived from the original on 24 December 2018. Retrieved 15 March 2015. With "download author biography" (pdf) that differs.
  6. ↑ "BBC Two - University Challenge - Available now".
  7. ↑ "Past Winners". Jewish Book Council. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
  8. ↑ Kimpton, Steve; Kimpton, Diana (n.d.). "Author Profiles: Adèle Geras". The Word Pool. Retrieved 29 February 2012.
  9. ↑ "Author's Animal Antices – Adele Geras". 3 June 2010. Sarah's Book Reviews (feelingfictional.com). Retrieved 15 March 2015. Includes full text of the poem "Mimi's Day", written 1999 (Mimi the cat died in 2005).
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