Berlie Doherty facts for kids

Berlie Doherty (born 6 November 1943) is an English writer. She writes novels, poems, plays, and TV shows. She is famous for her children's books, and she has won the important Carnegie Medal twice for them. She has also written books for adults, plays for theatre and radio, and even stories for children's operas.

Early Life and Learning

Berlie Doherty was born in Knotty Ash, Liverpool, in 1943. She was the youngest of three children. When she was four, her family moved to Hoylake, which later became the setting for some of her first books.

Her father loved to tell stories and write poetry. He encouraged Berlie to write from a very young age. Her poems and stories started appearing in local newspapers when she was just five years old! She remembered her father telling her bedtime stories and often finishing them together, which helped her love for writing grow.

Berlie went to Upton Hall Convent School. She studied English at the University of Durham and later social science at the University of Liverpool. After starting her family, she got a teaching certificate from the University of Sheffield in 1978. A creative writing class there led to a short story that was broadcast on local radio. This story later became her first adult novel, Requiem.

Before becoming a full-time writer, Berlie worked as a social worker and a teacher. She also spent two years writing and producing school programs for BBC Radio Sheffield. Some of these radio series later became her published books, like How Green You Are!, Children of Winter, and White Peak Farm.

Becoming a Writer

Berlie started writing for children's newspaper pages when she was five and continued until she was fourteen. She didn't start writing seriously again until her own children were in school, more than twenty years later. Her first book, How Green You Are!, was published in 1982. The next year, she became a full-time writer.

Her third book, White Peak Farm (1984), was for older readers. It was about life on a modern family farm. Even though she hadn't lived on a farm, she had interviewed teenagers from farms in Derbyshire for a radio series. She later moved to a 300-year-old farm cottage in the Peak District of Derbyshire, surrounded by farms.

Berlie Doherty has written over sixty novels and picture books for children and young adults. Many people say her books are honest about feelings. She writes in many different styles. For example, her story Tilly Mint and the Dodo (1988) is about protecting animals and stopping species from disappearing. Spellhorn (1989) is a fantasy story that helps readers understand what it might be like to be blind.

Some of her books are set in the past, like Street Child (1993), which takes place in London in the 1860s, and Treason, set during the time of Henry VIII. Some stories are even based on her own family history. Granny Was a Buffer Girl (1986) tells the story of her parents' marriage, and The Sailing Ship Tree (1998) is inspired by her father and grandfather.

Ladybower Reservoir, which inspired Berlie Doherty's book Deep Secret

Berlie's books often have a strong connection to places. She loves how landscapes inspire her. She lives in Edale, Derbyshire, in the Dark Peak area, and many of her books, like Jeannie of White Peak Farm, are set there. Children of Winter (1985) is based on the true story of the plague village of Eyam. The story of villages like Derwent and Ashopton being flooded to create the Ladybower Reservoir is told in her book Deep Secret (2004). The fantasy picture book Blue John (2003) was inspired by the Blue John Cavern at Castleton. A ghost story called The Haunted Hills was inspired by a local legend about Lost Lad, a rocky area near her home.

Berlie often works with children and teenagers when she is writing her novels. She believes that children are "experts" and she can always learn from them. For example, she read her first novel, How Green You Are!, to one of her classes when she was a teacher. For Spellhorn, she worked a lot with a group of blind children from a school in Sheffield.

Poetry

Berlie Doherty's poetry collection Walking on Air was published in 1993. Her poems have also appeared in other collections. She put together a collection of "story poems" called The Forsaken Merman and other story poems (1998). One of her poems is even engraved on a bench in Sheffield!

Plays and TV Shows

Berlie has written many plays for radio. She thinks radio is a great way to tell stories because it makes both the writer and the listener use their imaginations. She has also written plays for the theatre.

She has adapted two of her novels for television: White Peak Farm for BBC1 (1988) and Children of Winter for Channel 4 (1994). She also wrote the 2001 TV series Zzaap and the Word Master, which was about two children trapped in cyberspace. This show was part of the Look and Read schools programming on BBC2.

Stories with Music

Several of Berlie Doherty's works are meant to be performed with music. She has written the stories (called libretti) for three children's operas. Daughter of the Sea was based on her own novel and had music by Richard Chew. The Magician's Cat (2004) and Wild Cat (2007) were commissioned by the Welsh National Opera and had music by Julian Philips. Wild Cat was even partly translated into Welsh!

She also wrote stories to be read while the Lindsay String Quartet played music. These include The Midnight Man, Blue John, and The Spell of the Toadman. The Midnight Man and Blue John were later published as picture books. Her daughter, Sally, has also created music for The Midnight Man and Daughter of the Sea.

Awards and Recognition

Berlie Doherty has won the important Carnegie Medal twice. This award is given to the best children's book by a British subject each year. She won for Granny Was a Buffer Girl (1986) and for Dear Nobody (1991). No writer has ever won the Carnegie Medal three times.

Granny Was a Buffer Girl was also a runner-up for the 1988 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award. Dear Nobody also won a Japanese award (the Sankei Award) and a Writers' Guild Award for its TV adaptation.

In 2002, the University of Derby gave Berlie Doherty an honorary doctorate, which is a special degree.

White Peak Farm won the 2004 Phoenix Award. This award is for the best English-language children's book that didn't win a major award when it was first published twenty years earlier. The Phoenix Award is named after the mythical bird that rises from ashes, showing how the book became famous later on.

Personal Life

Berlie Doherty lives with fellow children's writer Alan Brown. Her two daughters have also worked with her. Janna Doherty illustrated some of her books, and Sally has set some of her stories to music.

Books and Works

Novels for Children and Young Adults

• How Green You Are! (1982)
• The Making of Fingers Finnigan (1983)
• White Peak Farm (1984); later called Jeannie of White Peak Farm
• Children of Winter (1985)
• Granny Was a Buffer Girl (1986)
• Tough Luck (1987)
• Spellhorn (1989)
• Dear Nobody (1991)
• Street Child (1993)
• The Snake-Stone (1995)
• Daughter of the Sea (1996)
• The Sailing Ship Tree (1998)
• The Snow Queen (1998; based on Hans Christian Andersen)
• Holly Starcross (2001)
• Deep Secret (2004)
• Abela: The Girl Who Saw Lions (2007)
• A Beautiful Place for a Murder (2008)
• Treason (2011)
• The Company of Ghosts (2013)
• Far from Home: The Sisters of Street Child (2015)

Picture Books, Story Books, and Short Story Collections

• Tilly Mint Tales (1984)
• Tilly Mint and the Dodo (1988)
• Paddiwak and Cosy (1988)
• Snowy (1992)
• Old Father Christmas (1993; retelling of a story by Juliana Horatia Ewing)
• Willa and Old Miss Annie (1994)
• The Magical Bicycle (1995)
• The Golden Bird (1995)
• Our Field (1996; retelling of a story by Juliana Horatia Ewing)
• Running on Ice (1997)
• Bella's Den (1997)
• Tales of Wonder and Magic (edited; 1997)
• The Midnight Man (1998)
• The Famous Adventures of Jack (2000)
• Fairy Tales (2000)
• Zzaap and the Word Master (2001; with a TV series)
• The Nutcracker (2002)
• Coconut Comes to School (2002)
• Tricky Nelly's Birthday Treat (2003)
• Blue John (2003)
• The Starburster (2004)
• Jinnie Ghost (2005)
• The Humming Machine (2006)
• The Winspinner (2008)
• Peak Dale Farm: A Calf Called Valentine (2009)
• Peak Dale Farm: Valentine's Day (2009)
• The Three Princes (2011)
• Wild Cat (2012)
• Joe and the Dragonosaurus (2015)

Poetry Collections

• Walking on Air (1993)
• Big Bulgy Fat Black Slugs (1993; with Joy Cowley and June Melser)
• The Forsaken Merman and Other Story Poems (edited; 1998)
• Kieran

Novels for Adults

• Requiem (1991)
• The Vinegar Jar (1994)

Selected Plays and Radio Plays

• The Drowned Village (1980)
• Unlucky for Some (1980)
• Home (1982)
• A Case for Probation (1983)
• Sacrifice (1985)
• Return to the Ebro (1986; adapted as a radio play as There's a Valley in Spain, 1990)
• The Sleeping Beauty (1993)

Stories for Children's Operas

• Daughter of the Sea (2004)
• The Magician's Cat (2004), with music by Julian Philips
• Wildcat (2007), with music by Julian Philips