The writer Nicholas Stuart Gray died on March 17th 1981, 40 years ago today. He was only 58 years old.
There are a few articles on here featuring characters from his books; here is another, more general, post to mark the occasion.
Nicholas Stuart Gray
Nicholas Stuart Gray was a very private person and there is little information available about his life, Much of the material that does exist can be found in a short Wikipedia entry and The Pied Pipers by Justin Wintle and Emma Fisher, which contains interviews with some influential creators of children's literature.
Nicholas Stuart Gray was interviewed in 1974. He said something that I agree with very strongly. He said that he wrote plays -
“...to give the children a sense of magic. Nobody attends to this enough. They give them too much realism. They can see it all on the box, they can see frightful things there. They can read it in the papers. But they’re not being given a world to escape into…the world of the imagination...Children must have an escape line somewhere.”
Diana Wynne Jones, who was also of Celtic origin, had very similar views. She wrote about the uselessness and harmful effects of realistic children's books versus the beneficial effects of magic and fantasy.
Both writers enhanced the lives of many children. They provided pathways into other worlds for children who needed to escape from something and escape to somewhere. They knew what this was like themselves; they both had awful mothers and as children they both made up stories to make their younger siblings' lives more bearable:
“From a young age, he (Nicholas Stuart Gray) made up stories and plays to amuse his brothers and sisters, and to try and escape his unhappy childhood.”
Stella Gibbons too created wonderful fairy tales that she told to her two younger brothers to help them escape from and temporarily forget their unhappy situation.
Nicholas Stuart Gray's books
I discovered some of Nicholas Stuart Gray's books and plays for children in the public library when I was still in primary school. He soon became one of my favourite authors, not only for the magic and fantasy but also because of the humour.
Some years ago, when I was trying to salvage the best of the past and looking for relevant and commentary-inspiring material, I remembered his books and how much I had enjoyed reading them. Some stories I found in two of the few books I was able to get hold of generated articles about three of his witches.
The public library hadn't stocked all of Nicholas Stuart Gray's works. The articles about the witches were inspired by eBay books I had recently read for the first time: Huddle with her strong black magic and poor lonely Barbara came from The Edge of Evening; Mother Gothel came from the play - as opposed to the novel - version of The Stone Cage. I saw them as an ideal source for blog content and read them with knowledge and experience of the context they fitted into; I don't know how much I would have enjoyed reading them as a child just for the story.
Over the Hills to Fabylon is another matter. I feel very privileged to have discovered this wonderful book at a young age. It made a great impression and I read it many times.
Of all the Nicholas Stuart Gray works that I still haven't read, on the basis of online descriptions Down in the Cellar looks like the one I would enjoy reading the most. The few available copies cost a small fortune though.
https://thecityoflostbooks.glasgow.ac.uk/nicholas-stuart-gray-down-in-the-cellar-1961/
https://normblog.typepad.com/normblog/2007/09/writers-choice-.html
Nicholas Stuart Gray in the world of today
Nicholas Stuart Gray's books are discussed in various places online. Many people say how much they enjoyed reading them as children, how difficult it is to find them now and how expensive the few available copies are. They think that he deserves to be better known and wish that his books would all be re-printed, and so do I.
This is a typical comment:
“I have to mention Nicholas Stuart Gray, nowadays seemingly forgotten, although his most famous 'Over the Hills to Fabylon' appears at astronomical prices on Amazon and Ebay.”
There is a Facebook for Nicholas Stuart Gray.
It has a link to my article about his witch Mother Gothel:
“A rather arresting blog entry about The Stone Cage, which discusses clinical narcissism and the characterisation of Mother Gothel.“
https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Author/Nicholas-Stuart-Gray-185272921578508/
A comment on the FB from yet another Fabylon fan:
“My all time favourite is 'Over the Hills to Fabylon'. I have vivid memories of reading it aloud to my younger cousins when I stayed over at their house. I would love a copy to read to my (yet to be born) grandchildren but they are very rare and expensive these days alas! I would gladly swap my copy of 'Down in the Cellar' for a copy of Fabylon.“
I have a copy of Fabylon, but I wouldn't give it up even to get hold of Down in the Cellar!
Nicholas Stuart Gray was born in October 1922; the 100th anniversary of his birth would be an ideal time to re-issue these and other books.
A rare picture of Nicholas Stuart Gray:
