Hester Burton
Hester Burton (6 December 1913 – 17 September 2000) was a British writer, primarily of historical fiction for children and young adults. She received the prestigious Carnegie Medal for her 1963 novel Time of Trial.[1] Many of her books including Time of Trial[2] were illustrated by Victor Ambrus. Her principal publisher was the Oxford University Press.[1]
Biography
Burton was born Hester Wood-Hill in Beccles, Suffolk, on 6 December 1913. From 1925 to 1936 she was educated at Headington School and St Anne's College, Oxford, where she received an honours degree in English.[1] In 1937, she married Reginald W.B. Burton, a Classics don at Oriel College.[3]
She worked for the Oxford University Press from 1956 to 1964, contributing two volumes to the Oxford Sheldonian English Series for secondary schoolchildren—Coleridge and the Wordsworths, 1953,[4] and Tennyson, 1954[5]—and working as an assistant editor in the revision of the Oxford Junior Encyclopaedia.[1][3] She also edited two anthologies, A Book of Modern Stories (1959)[6] and Her First Ball (1959).[7]
Burton's historical fiction tended to share the radical and liberal perspective popularised by Geoffrey Trease. Many of her books are set in her home county of Suffolk and many show a particular interest in the sea.[8]
Burton died in Oxford following a stroke at age 86, on 17 September 2000.
Bibliography
- The Great Gale (1960) [aka The Flood at Reedsmere] – North Sea flood of 1953
- Castors Away! (1962) – Napoleonic wars
- Time of Trial (1963) – free speech in the early 19th century
- A Seaman at the Time of Trafalgar (1963) – Napoleonic wars at sea
- No Beat of Drum (1966) – social unrest in 1830 and transportation to Van Diemen's Land
- In Spite of All Terror (1968) – the beginning of the Second World War, Dunkirk and evacuation
- Otmoor for Ever (1968) – enclosure and the Otmoor Riots of 1830
- Thomas (1969) [aka Beyond the Weir Bridge] – English Civil War and after
- Through the Fire (1969) – persecution of the Quakers during The Restoration and the Great Fire of London
- The Henchmans at Home (1970) [aka The Day That Went Terribly Wrong: And Other Stories] – family life in Victorian Suffolk
- The Rebel (1971) – Revolutionary France
- Riders of the Storm (1972) – education and unrest in 18th-century England
- Kate Rider (1974) – English Civil War: Siege of Colchester
- To Ravensrigg (1976) – Liverpool slave trade
- Tim at the Fur Fort (1977) – Hudson Bay Company
- A Grenville Goes to Sea (1977) – Nelson's navy
- When the Beacons Blazed (1978) – Spanish Armada
- Five August Days (1981) – a contemporary adventure
References
- 1 2 3 4 (Carnegie Winner 1963). Living Archive: Celebrating the Carnegie and Greenaway Winners. CILIP. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
- ↑ Time of Trial at WorldCat.
- 1 2 "Hester Burton". The Telegraph. 30 October 2000. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
- ↑ Coleridge and the Wordsworths at WorldCat.
- ↑ Tennyson at WorldCat.
- ↑ A Book of Modern Stories at WorldCat.
- ↑ Her First Ball at WorldCat.
- ↑ "Hester Burton" at Fantastic Fiction.
External links
- Hester Burton at Library of Congress Authorities, with 24 catalogue records (including 1 "from old catalog")
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