Background
Vivien Alcock was born on September 23, 1924, in Worthing, United Kingdom.
74 High St, Oxford OX1 4BG, United Kingdom
Vivien went to school in Wiltshire, and then to Oxford School of Art (present-day Ruskin School of Art), but left in 1942 to join the Auxiliary Territorial Service before finishing her course.
(Thirteen-year-old Cassie, the seventh child of a seventh ...)
Thirteen-year-old Cassie, the seventh child of a seventh child, begins to exhibit the gift of second sight which enables her to communicate with the Other World.
https://www.amazon.com/Haunting-Cassie-Palmer-Vivien-Alcock/dp/0440035384/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=Vivien+Alcock&qid=1602667817&rnid=2941120011&s=books&sr=1-2
1980
(Everyone is so tired of Poppy Brown's stories that Poppy ...)
Everyone is so tired of Poppy Brown's stories that Poppy has begun talking to garden statues. When her favorite statue, Belladonna, is struck by lightning and comes to life, Poppy must find a human who will listen! Poppy's classmate Emma is skeptical but curious enough to help Poppy investigate the living statues, which are disappearing from gardens all over town and assembling somewhere on the moors. What seemed fascinating at first soon becomes terrifying as the two girls are captured by the creatures they had observed - creatures who are at once beautiful, spiteful, and as unfeeling as the stone they're made of. Everyone is so tired of Poppy Brown's stories that Poppy has begun talking to garden statues. When her favorite statue, Belladonna, is struck by lightning and comes to life, Poppy must find a human who will listen! Poppy's classmate Emma is skeptical but curious enough to help Poppy investigate the living statues, which are disappearing from gardens all over town and assembling somewhere on the moors. What seemed fascinating at first soon becomes terrifying as the two girls are captured by the creatures they had observed - creatures who are at once beautiful, spiteful, and as unfeeling as the stone they're made of.
https://www.amazon.com/Stonewalkers-Vivien-Alcock/dp/0395816521/ref=sr_1_9?dchild=1&keywords=Vivien+Alcock&qid=1602667817&rnid=2941120011&s=books&sr=1-9
1981
(During a trip to the seaside with her ne'er-do-well artis...)
During a trip to the seaside with her ne'er-do-well artist father, twelve-year-old Emily makes friends with a gypsy's son and the young heir to a stately home, who is struck by her resemblance to mysterious, long-dead Sylvia, a girl in a painting by Renoir. Her father's disappearance on a mysterious errand leads Emily to Millerton House and to Oliver Millerton, who points out her resemblance to Sylvia, the subject of a famous painting - a resemblance that holds the key to an international art conspiracy.
https://www.amazon.com/Sylvia-Game-Vivien-Alcock/dp/0385293410/ref=sr_1_12?dchild=1&keywords=Vivien+Alcock&qid=1602667817&rnid=2941120011&s=books&sr=1-12
1982
(Determined to save an old elephant from the slaughterhous...)
Determined to save an old elephant from the slaughterhouse, two circus children kidnap the animal and begin a dangerous journey, traveling by night across the English countryside to a safari park where they hope to find the elephant home.
https://www.amazon.com/Travelers-Night-Vivien-Alcock/dp/0385294069/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=Vivien+Alcock&qid=1602667817&rnid=2941120011&s=books&sr=1-4
1983
(A dark figure wreathed in sea spray appears, as if from n...)
A dark figure wreathed in sea spray appears, as if from nowhere, below the treacherous Grey Gull rocks. Felicity, famous for her clumsiness, deftly saves Mr. Ross from drowning and brings him home to her mother's guest house. But who is he? And how does he exert such a subtle power over everyone he meets? Even Felicity, with her wild flights of fancy, couldn't have dreamed up Mr. Ross, nor guessed how he would transform her life and the lives of all who meet him. Vivien Alcock has written a haunting and compelling story of an imaginative girl growing up in a world where commonsense holds sway. Written with humor and great sensitivity, it observes the reactions of an ordinary family and a typical seaside town to the unexpected.
https://www.amazon.com/Mysterious-Mr-Ross-Vivien-Alcock/dp/0416013120/ref=sr_1_8?dchild=1&keywords=Vivien+Alcock&qid=1602667817&rnid=2941120011&s=books&sr=1-8
1987
(Using a tissue sample she believes is from one of her fat...)
Using a tissue sample she believes is from one of her father's experiments in genetic engineering, Frankie accidentally creates a baby monster, which begins to grow at an alarming rate.
https://www.amazon.com/Monster-Garden-Vivien-Alcock/dp/0440500532/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=Vivien+Alcock&qid=1602667817&rnid=2941120011&s=books&sr=1-5
1988
(New in town, Anna Cotman wants nothing more than to find ...)
New in town, Anna Cotman wants nothing more than to find a friend. But when bossy Lindy Miller persuades her to join her older brother's secret society, Anna becomes uneasy. She knows that beneath the secret codes, strange rituals, and frightening masks, the society is just a game. But when Anna breaks the rules and is threatened with punishment, she finds the game has gotten seriously out of hand. New in town, Anna Cotman wants nothing more than to find a friend. But when bossy Lindy Miller persuades her to join her older brother's secret society, Anna becomes uneasy. She knows that beneath the secret codes, strange rituals, and frightening masks, the society is just a game. But when Anna breaks the rules and is threatened with punishment, she finds the game has gotten seriously out of hand.
https://www.amazon.com/Trial-Anna-Cotman-Vivien-Alcock/dp/0395816491/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=Vivien+Alcock&qid=1602667817&rnid=2941120011&s=books&sr=1-3
1989
(In a powerful tale based on Greek mythology, Cleo is turn...)
In a powerful tale based on Greek mythology, Cleo is turned to stone by the deadly glare of Medusa, and Phaidon embarks on an epic journey to rescue her from an eternity in marble.
https://www.amazon.com/Singer-Sea-God-Vivien-Alcock/dp/0385308663/ref=sr_1_20?dchild=1&keywords=Vivien+Alcock&qid=1602667827&rnid=2941120011&s=books&sr=1-20
1992
(With a flash of light and a sound like thin ice cracking,...)
With a flash of light and a sound like thin ice cracking, seventh-grader Mary Frewin is propelled into an alternative world in search of her great-great-grandmother, who disappeared under similar circumstances a hundred years before.
https://www.amazon.com/Time-Wreck-Contents-Vivien-Alcock/dp/0749728213/ref=sr_1_24?dchild=1&keywords=Vivien+Alcock&qid=1602667827&rnid=2941120011&s=books&sr=1-24
1996
(Mary Frewin, a young girl with the ability to see red-ear...)
Mary Frewin, a young girl with the ability to see red-eared ghosts, finds her life complicated by the arrival of two of the ghosts, a thin man and his large, wolf-like dog, who seems particularly interested in Mary.
https://www.amazon.com/Red-Eared-Ghosts-Vivien-Alcock/dp/0395816602/ref=sr_1_7?dchild=1&keywords=Vivien+Alcock&qid=1602667817&rnid=2941120011&s=books&sr=1-7
1997
Vivien Alcock was born on September 23, 1924, in Worthing, United Kingdom.
Vivien went to school in Wiltshire, and then to Oxford School of Art (present-day Ruskin School of Art), but left in 1942 to join the Auxiliary Territorial Service before finishing her course. Not, as she later said, because it made any difference to the war, but because it made a great difference to her.
While serving as an ambulance driver in Belgium, Vivien Alcock met her future husband Leon Garfield. Leon was a bio-technician but, like Vivien, wanted to be a writer, and with his earliest books, "Jack Holborn" (1964), "Devil-In-The-Fog" (1966), and "Smith" (1967), he was soon established among the distinguished writers for children at the time.
While Leon wrote, Vivien worked as a commercial artist, apparently recognizing that you could only have one such creative force in a house at a time. It was only as his success began to wane that she produced her own novels.
The intention to write was rekindled when her daughter Jane was a child. Telling her stories led Vivien to her first novel, "The Haunting Of Cassie Palmer." Published in 1980, it had many of the qualities that came to distinguish Vivien's work: the complexities of family ties, the need for friendships, and the value of kindness. In the book, Cassie, the seventh child of a seventh child, wants nothing more than to be normal. When she accidentally raises a ghost from its grave, she finds she cannot get rid of it with power, but only with pity.
Fantasy and reality blur again in "The Stonewalkers" (1981), when two teenagers are threatened by the stones they accidentally bring to life. Like Cassie, the heroine Poppy finds they teach her that love and compassion are the powers that heal and resolve.
If any of this sounds cloying or sentimental, it is not. In both these stories, and in many of her later books - including those without fantasy, such as "The Cuckoo Sister" (1985) and "The Trial Of Anna Cotman" (1989) - Vivien observes all with dry humor, never diminishing the near despair that not belonging or fitting in can create. It was a far cry from the more overt problem novels that flourished at the time.
Vivien could also be just deliciously imaginative, as in "The Dancing Bush" (1991), a short novel for younger readers about a bush that comes to life in the moonlight. Perhaps surprisingly, her books, which continued at the rate of almost one a year throughout the 1980s and 1990s, remained fresh and apparently effortlessly contemporary.
(During a trip to the seaside with her ne'er-do-well artis...)
1982(Determined to save an old elephant from the slaughterhous...)
1983(With a flash of light and a sound like thin ice cracking,...)
1996(Mary Frewin, a young girl with the ability to see red-ear...)
1997(Using a tissue sample she believes is from one of her fat...)
1988(In a powerful tale based on Greek mythology, Cleo is turn...)
1992(Thirteen-year-old Cassie, the seventh child of a seventh ...)
1980(A dark figure wreathed in sea spray appears, as if from n...)
1987(Everyone is so tired of Poppy Brown's stories that Poppy ...)
1981(New in town, Anna Cotman wants nothing more than to find ...)
1989Vivien had a particular understanding of the inner feeling of teenagers, especially those who observe quietly from the sidelines. As she saw it, "childhood is an exciting and dangerous time, and it fascinates me," and her books reflect that excitement, danger, and fascination.
Vivien was very modest and very shy. Although always polite, she positively enjoyed being retiring, and would certainly have hated the kind of public parade now associated with being a children's writer. When her publisher threw a party to celebrate one of her books - thinking to honor her in a fitting manner - she was clearly uncomfortable with the limelight.
Vivien met her future husband Leon Garfield in Belgium. They married in the face of strong opposition from both their families, especially from Garfield's orthodox Jewish parents. Leon was a bio-technician but, like Vivien, wanted to be a writer. The couple adopted a girl, Jane. They named her after Jane Austin.