Peter Carter (author)

Not to be confused with the British architect Peter James Carter (1927–2017), author of Mies van der Rohe at Work (van der Rohe at WorldCat).

Peter Carter (13 August 1929 – 21 July 1999) was a British writer of children's books, primarily historical novels. He won several awards: the Guardian Prize, two Young Observer Prizes, and the German Preis der Leseratten. His books were shortlisted for many more prizes, and were translated into at least six languages, from Japanese to Portuguese.^[1]

Peter Carter
Born	13 August 1929 Manchester, England
Died	21 July 1999 (1999-07-22) (aged 69) Warwick, England
Occupation	Children's book author
Nationality	British
Education	Wadham College (MA, 1962)
Notable awards	Guardian Children's Fiction Prize (1981)
Spouse	Lois Wilkinson Gudrun Willege

Personal life and education

Carter was born in Manchester, one of eight children.^{[citation needed]} He left school at 14 and later took evening classes in art and philosophy, before entering Wadham College, Oxford at age 30.^[1] There, he received the M.A. in English Literature in 1962.^[2]

Carter's first wife Lois Wilkinson died after one year, during his time at Oxford.^[1] He later married Gudrun Willege, a German photographer^[2] —or Ulrike Willige^[1]— and moved to Hamburg, Germany, in 1976.^[2] Later they divorced and remarried; he moved or visited back and forth.^[1] He married four times in all, and had one stepson.^[1]

On 21 July 1999 Carter died from abdominal hæmorrhage while writing at his home in Warwick.^[1]

Career

Carter worked as a school teacher from 1963 to 1976, then a full-time writer until his death in 1999.

For Under Goliath (Oxford, 1977) he was a commended runner-up for the Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject.^[3][a] He won Guardian Children's Fiction Prize for The Sentinels,^[4] published by Oxford University Press in 1981. The annual book award is judged by a panel of British children's writers and recognises the year's best book by an author who has not yet won it.^[5]

Awards and honours

Awards for Carter's writing

Year	Title	Award	Result	Ref.
1978	Under Goliath	Carnegie Medal	Commended	[3]
1981	The Sentinels	Guardian Children's Fiction Prize	Winner	[4][5]
1981	The Sentinels	Premio Europeo di Letteratura Giovanile	Winner	[citation needed]
1982	Children of the Book	Young Observer/Rank Organisation Fiction prize[clarification needed]	Winner	[citation needed]
1982	Children of the Book	Preis der Leseratten	Winner	[citation needed]
1987	Bury the Dead	Young Observer Teenage Fiction Award	Winner	[6]

Publications

All of Carter's books were published by Oxford University Press.^[1]

• The Black Lamp (1973), illustrated by David Harris
• The Gates of Paradise (1974), illus. Fermin Rocker
• Madatan (1974), illus. Victor Ambrus
• Mao (1976), a biography
• Under Goliath (1977)
• The Sentinels (1980)
• Children of the Book (1982)
• Captain Teachum's Buried Treasure (1989), illus. Korky Paul
• Bury the Dead (1987)
• Leaving Cheyenne (1990); U.S. title, Borderlands
• The Hunted (1993)
• Fairy Tales from Grimm retold by Carter (Oxford, 1999)

See also

Notes

1. Today there are usually eight books on the Carnegie Medal shortlist. According to CCSU, there were about 160 commendations of two kinds in 49 years from 1954 to 2002, including Carter and two others for 1977.