Mark, Jan

▪ 2007

Janet Marjorie Brisland Mark 

      British children's author (b. June 22, 1943, Welwyn, Hertfordshire, Eng.—d. Jan. 15, 2006, Oxford, Eng.), was admired for the high quality of her prolific output of more than 80 works for children, ranging from picture books to young-adult novels, many of which were in the speculative-fiction genre. Mark won the Kestrel/Guardian competition for unpublished writers with her first book, Thunder and Lightnings (1976), which also received the Carnegie Medal for most distinguished children's book. She won a rare second Carnegie Medal for her novel Handles (1983). Mark was artist in residence (1982–84) at Oxford Polytechnic (now Oxford Brookes University) and was the editor of The Oxford Book of Children's Stories (1993; rev. ed., 2001).

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