Gillian Cross Biography

Gillian Cross is a children's author. She was born in 1945 in London. Her father’s name was James Eric Arnold who died in 1988. Her mother’s name is Joan Emma Arnold. She got married in 1967 to Martin Cross and had four children,

Jonathan (born in 1967)
Elizabeth (born in 1970)
Anthony (born in 1984)
Katherine (born in 1985)








Martin Cross
The main education institutes she was educated in are: I. North London Collegiate School for Girls II. Somerville College, Oxford III. University of SussexHer Qualifications are:MA (Oxford) Class 1
D. Phil (Sussex)Her hobbies include:Orienteering and playing the piano. “But I'm not very good at either of them.” She says. “I also read a lot.”Although now a full-time writer who often travels and gives talks in connection with her work, she has had a number of informal jobs including being an unqualified teacher in a primary school (when she was 19), an assistant to a village baker (when she was 23), a child minder (when she was about 30), an assistant to a Member of Parliament (when she was about 32) and being an assistant to a Member of Parliament. For eight years she also sat on the committee which advises ministers about public libraries. (Now how did she manage that?) She has been awarded many times for different books she wrote. Here is the lot:The Dark behind the Curtain was a Carnegie highly commended book, 1982, and a Guardian Award runner-up, 1983; American Library Association (ALA) best books for young adult’s designation, and Whitbread





An awful lot she has.
Award runner-up, both 1984, ALA notable books of the year, 1985, and Edgar Allan Poe Award runner-up, Mys-tery Writers of America, 1986, all for On the Edge; Carnegie commended book, 1986, and ALA best books for young adults designation, 1987, both for Chartbreaker; ALA notable books of the year designation, 1987, for Roscoe's Leap; Carnegie commendation, 1988, for A Map of Nowhere; Carnegie Medal, 1990, and Parents' Choice award, 1991, both for Wolf; Smarties Grand Prix award, and Whitbread Children's Novel Award, both 1992, both for The Great Elephant Chase. She also wrote The Demon Headmaster series of books that were later turned into television series by the BBC.
OK now we have known all the basics. Let’s take an interview from her ourselves….

“I was born near London, on Christmas Eve 1945.” Mrs. Gillian says “I can't remember a time when I couldn't read, and books have always been an important part of my life. As a child, I spent a lot of time writing stories, or acting them out with my friends.
When I went to secondary school, I travelled there and back on the London Underground and for a while I told my friends a serial story on the train. It was all about ourselves, and a lot of famous actors and tennis players came into it as well. I left school when I was nineteen and spent nine months as a Community Service Volunteer, working in a school and helping on a course for teenagers. It was one of the most important periods of my life - I met lots of different people, learnt a lot and had a wonderful time.
Then I went to Oxford, to study English, and met my husband, Martin. We got married when we were both twenty one, had a baby son, Jon, and lived in a village outside Oxford in a cottage next door to an old-fashioned bakery. I used to help the baker twice a week. Jon came too. He sat on the floor and played while I kneaded the dough.
We moved from there Lewes, where our daughter Elizabeth was born, and where I did some more studying, at the University of Sussex. After that, I began to write seriously, and my first book was completed in about 1974. Nobody wanted to publish it, but that didn't put me off I went on writing books and sending them off to publishers and, five years later, I had my first book accepted - the Runaway.


The Runaway

The Runaway.Ever since then, I've had a happy time looking after my family and writing. Martin and I now have four children - Anthony was born in 1984 and Katy was born in 1985. We've moved a couple of times and at the moment we're living in a beautiful village in Warwickshire. When I'm not writing, I orienteer (like everyone else in the family), play the piano (very badly) and edit the Parish Magazine. I didn’t really write stories with morals but I like to write about characters in some kind of trouble and how they cope with them.”

“Ever wondered what writers really do? Well, here's my answer - or part of it.”
“I spend a lot of time writing, of course. Sometimes I do it on the computer, and sometimes I use pens and paper. I visit schools, too, and talk at conferences and book festivals. But that's not the whole story. Being a writer has led me into much odder experiences. Among other things, I've

i. Opened libraries
ii. Quizzed someone at the Ministry of Defence about making bombs
iii. Been taken into the wolf cage at London Zoo. (There were about seven wolves in there at the time. If you want to know what it was like, you'll find a description in Wolf.)
iv. Been involved with a musical
v. Had my face stroked by an elephant's trunk. (She stroked my coat as well, all over. It was nice, but very embarrassing - because I had to travel home on the train, and I reeked of elephant!)
vi. Been on location with a television crew
vii. Put on a virtual reality helmet and walked into a room full of fish swimming all round me.
viii. Had the Blue Peter team in my kitchen
ix. Interviewed a goat

x. Slid feet first up the stairs

That's just a handful of my experiences. Other people will have completely different ones - but I expect they're just as odd and varied. (Maybe we ought to run a competition for the most peculiar one . . . ?) When you're a writer, you never know where the next book will lead.”
FAQs:
1. Where do you get your ideas from?
It's hard to say where my ideas come from. I usually get a picture of a place or a person. Sometimes I get a tiny little scene in my mind - very short, like the trailers you see on television. There's never very much of an idea to start with, just a little snippet and a very strong feeling that it can grow into a story. Then I ask myself lots of questions about the characters, and I find out what happens by starting to write the story down. I hardly ever know the whole story before I start writing the book.2. Do you earn a lot of money from writing?
Yes, I earn quite a good amount of money from writing, but I never know how much it's going to be. Every time someone buys one of my books, some of the money (around 7 per cent) goes to me. The publishers collect up all that money and pay it over to me twice a year. And in April, I add the whole lot up and find out how much I've earned that year.
3. What was your first book called?
The first book I ever wrote was called Such a Nice Girl - and it was terrible. But I learned two important things from writing it. The first was that I could get to the end of a book, and the second was that I liked writing books better than almost anything else. So I went on doing it and, in due course, I wrote The Runaway, which was my first published book.
4. Do you ever base characters on real people?
No, I never base my characters on real people - not on purpose at least. If I did I would find it very hard to make anyone in my books do anything bad - in case the real person was cross about it. And anyway, it's much more fun to make people up. But sometimes, I find I've made a character a bit like a real person by mistake.
5. What do you do in your spare time?
My main hobbies are playing the piano (very badly!) and orienteering, which involves finding your way round forests with a map, and running as hard as you can. I also like swimming and gardening, though I don't have much time for those. I read lots and lots, as well.
6. What is your favorite book by someone else?
I haven't really got a favorite book - because I have so many. I always seem to be discovering wonderful new things to read. But one book which has always been among my favorites is 'The Secret Garden' by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
7. What is your favorite book you have written?
I haven't got a favorite out of my own books, I've had good fun writing all of them - but the best one is always the one I'm writing NOW.
8. Do you have any tips for young writers?
I've got two main tips. First, tell the story as well as you can. If you get to the end and you can see things that are wrong - go back and put them right. There's no point in rewriting for the sake of it, but you're very lucky if you get everything right first time. I usually have to rewrite a book three or four times.The second tip is - have fun! If you don't have a good time while you're writing, how can you expect readers to enjoy themselves? (But that doesn't mean telling jokes all the time, of course. You can enjoy being sad or serious too.)
9. How long does it take you to write a book?
It usually takes me between five and nine months to write a book, depending on the length. In that time I rewrite it three or four times, and I've always spent quite a long time thinking about it before I start.

GOOD TO KNOWGillian Cross also wrote “The Lost” series based on techniques of survival. Almost all of her books are based on adventure and thriller.



NOW
Gillian Cross is now a middle-aged writer but still is the favorite of children. Let’s hope she writes many more of our favorite books and stories many more.