Subject strengths: Literature

Peter Dickinson was born in 1927 in Zambia and moved to England in 1936. Dickinson published almost fifty books including crime fiction for adults, speculative and supernatural fiction for older children, and simpler children's books. One of his few non-fiction books was the collection Chance, Luck and Destiny (1975) won the second annual Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for children's non-fiction in 1977. Dickinson won the Crime Writers' Association's Gold Dagger award for Skin Deep in 1968 and A Pride of Heroes in 1969. He won the 1977 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize for The Blue Hawk, and both the Whitbread Children's Book Award and the Carnegie Medal for Tulku (1979). He won the Carnegie Medal again the following year for City of Gold. In 1982, Dickinson was named in the International Board of Books for Young People Honor List for Tulku, and The Iron Lion was selected one of New York Times Notable Books. Dickinson was the British nominee in 1988 for the biennial Hans Christian Andersen Award, and one of five finalists for the award in 2000. Eva (1988) was a runner-up for both the Carnegie and the Horn Book Award. Dickinson won the Phoenix Award from the Children's Literature Association for The Seventh Raven (1981) and again in 2008 for Eva (1988). The Kin (1998) made the Whitbread Award shortlist. Dickinson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1999 and appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2009 Birthday Honours. He was also chair of the Society of Authors.

Peter Dickinson’s archive consists of draft manuscripts and correspondence relating to his publications for adults.

Collection Name and Collection Reference Code:

Collection Name: Dickinson (Peter) Archive

Archive Ref Code: PD

Date Range of Material

c. 1927 - 2015

Type of Material

Archive material relating to the science fiction author Peter Dickinson.

Size of Collection

30 boxes

How To Order Items From This Collection

Please use the finding aid below to search through a list of the individual items we have within this collection. If you find an item you would like to consult in the Special Collections reading room, simply make a note of the reference number and title of the item(s) you are interested in (for example PD/6/1 The Last Houseparty, final draft manuscript).You can then place your order by linking to our Request Form.

Finding Aid

Archival catalogue available via the Archives Hub.

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