Education

Emmanuel College.

Career

Townsend was born in Leeds and educated at Leeds Grammar School and Emmanuel College, Cambridge. In Britain, The Intruder was adapted as a children"s television series starring Milton Johns as the stranger. Also in Britain, Noah"s Castle was filmed by Southern Television, narrated by character Barry Mortimer (Simon Gipps-Kent), and transmitted in seven 25-minute episodes in 1980.

Achievements

• His best-known children"s novel is The Intruder, which won a 1971 Edgar Award, and his best-known academic work is Written for Children: An Outline of English Language Children"s Literature (1965), the definitive work of its time on the subject. His popular works include Gumble"s Yard, his debut novel published in 1961. Widdershins Crescent (1965). And The Intruder (1969), which won the 1971 Edgar Award for Best Juvenile Mystery from the Mystery Writers of America.