Richard Armstrong (author)

Richard Armstrong (author)

Richard Armstrong (1903-1986) was an English author who wrote for both adults and children. He was the winner of the Carnegie Medal in 1948 for his book "Sea Change". [ [http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/ The CILIP Carnegie Medal & Kate Greenaway Children's Book Awards] ] He is also known for a biography of Grace Darling in which he challenges the conventional story: "Grace Darling: Maid and Myth". He is often described on the cover of his books as "author and mariner".

Biography

Ralph Richard Armstrong was born in Walbottle, Northumberland on the 18th June, 1903. He was a blacksmith's son who left school at thirteen to work in a Tyneside steelworks. He spent three years there, starting as an errand boy and progressing to greaser, labourer and crane driver. His book "Sabotage at the Forge", set in a steelworks, is highly regarded for its accurate and effective description of a boy's experience in such an environment. "The Whinstone Drift" is similarly convincingly set against a Northumberland coal-mining background. [ [http://www.theweeweb.co.uk/public/author_profile.php?id=820 Richard Armstrong at the Wee Web] ]

After the First World War he went to sea in the Merchant Service and for seventeen years sailed in many types of vessel, gaining the experience which he later put to use in his books about seafaring. [ [http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/livingarchive/title.php?id=109 Richard Armstrong and "Sea Change" at the CILIP Carnegie Living Archive] ] . In 1937 he left the Merchant Service and pursued various occupations, finally concentrating on his writing. He drew on his wide-ranging experiences at sea, writing about, for example, cargo steamers ("Passage Home"}, oil tankers ("No Time for Tankers"), and whalers ("The Secret Sea").

He had a son, John, to whom he dedicated his book "Sailor's Luck". [ Dedication of "Sailor's Luck", 1959] He died in 1986.

Bibliography

Adult novels
*"The Northern Maid" (1947)
*"Passage Home" (1952)
*"Sailor's Luck" (1959)

Children's novels
*"The Mystery of Obadiah" (1943)
*"Sabotage at the Forge" (1946)
*"Sea Change" (1947)
*"The Whinstone Drift" (1951)
*"Danger Rock" (1955)
*"The Lost Ship" (1956)
*"No Time for Tankers" (1959)
*"Island Odyssey" (1963)
*"The Secret Sea" (1966)
*"The Mutineers" (1968)
*"The Albatross" (1970)

Non-Fiction
*"Grace Darling: Maid and Myth (1965)
*"A History of Seafaring" (1968-9):Volume 1: "The Early Mariners":Volume 2: "The Discoverers":Volume 3: "The Merchantmen"
*"Themselves Alone: the Story of Men in Empty Places" (1972)

References


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Richard Armstrong — may refer to:* Richard Armstrong (author), winner of the 1948 Carnegie medal for children s literature * Sir Richard Armstrong (conductor) (born 1943), British conductor * Sir Richard Armstrong (British Army officer) (1782–1854), British army… …   Wikipedia

  • Richard Webster (author) — Richard Webster (born 1950) is a Freud scholar and cultural historian. He is the author of five books. Webster studied English literature at the University of East Anglia and lives in Oxford, England. In 1985, Webster helped start The Orwell… …   Wikipedia

  • Armstrong (surname) — Armstrong is a surname, and may refer to:* Clan Armstrong, a Scottish clan from the border area between England and ScotlandReal people* Adam Armstrong (1909 1982), Australian politician * Alexander Armstrong several people, including **… …   Wikipedia

  • Richard Grainger — (1797 1861) was a builder in Newcastle upon Tyne. He worked together with the architects John Dobson and Thomas Oliver, and with the town clerk, John Clayton, to redevelop the centre of Newcastle in the 19th century. Grainger Street and the… …   Wikipedia

  • Richard N. Armstrong — Richard Normand Armstrong, known as R.N. Armstrong or Rick Armstrong (born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 1945), is an author, scholar, and college professor known for his studies of the rhetoric of prominent televangelists and other… …   Wikipedia

  • Richard Whatcoat — (February 23, 1736 ndash; July 4, 1806), was the third Bishop of the American Methodist Episcopal Church. HistoryWhatcoat was born in Gloucestershire, England and, although reared in the Church of England, became a Methodist at age 22. He was a… …   Wikipedia

  • Richard Redmayne — Richard Augustine Studdert Redmayne KCB, MICE, MIMM, MIME, FGS (22 July 1865 ndash; 27 December 1955) was a British civil and mining engineer. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/35701?docPos=3 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry] ]… …   Wikipedia

  • Richard Malcolm Johnston —     Richard Malcolm Johnston     † Catholic Encyclopedia ► Richard Malcolm Johnston     Educator, author, b. 8 March, 1822, at Powellton, Georgia, U.S.A.; d. at Baltimore, Maryland, 23 September, 1898. His father was a Baptist minister, and his… …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Richard Hook Richens — (1919 1984) was a former Director of the Commonwealth Bureau of Plant Breeding and Genetics at Cambridge University, and became best known for his studies of elm (Ulmus). His most famous publication was the seminal Elm , published in 1983, in… …   Wikipedia

  • Richard Nixon — Nixon redirects here. For other uses, see Nixon (disambiguation). For other people named Nixon, see Nixon (surname). Richard Nixon 37th President of the United States In offi …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”