Lenona
2012-03-12 17:22:38 UTC
She lives in Canterbury, England.
(Not to be confused with Mary Lyn Ray or with the popular British dog-
trainer/author.)
Her full name is Mary Eva Pedder Ray.
Contemporary Authors:
"The historical novels of Mary Ray bear witness to a passionate
interest in early western civilisation, as manifested in ancient
Greece, Rome, and Britain, especially at times of turbulence and
cultural change such as the birth of Christianity. Concepts which
might be thought too complex for children's reading are bravely
tackled by this committed writer who often hints at far more that she
can express within the confines of a children's book.
"Her attitude to the classical world is ambivalent. Although she is
attracted to--even obsessed with--ancient culture, as shown in her
detailed, loving descriptions of the landscape and the daily life,
there are terrible drawbacks. Life is rigidly stratified and many of
her characters are poor, enslaved, condemned to drudgery or forced
marriage. Women are especially powerless. Although Roman civilisation
is a highly organised creation, it needs Christian philosophy to
perfect it."
Two plot descriptions:
"Standing lions": "Traces the training of the seventeen-year-old
warrior-king, Diomedes of the house of Argos, in preclassical Greece
ten years prior to the Trojan War."
"Ides of April": "In Rome in 62 A.D., seventeen-year-old Hylas must
find a way to save himself, his mother, and the other household slaves
from imprisonment and imminent death when their master, a prominent
senator, is found murdered."
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&q=%22mary+ray%22+ides
(a few covers)
Excerpt from "The Ides of April":
Mary Ray has had a passion for ancient history, in her own words,
"from the age of six when I started at the deep end with the battle of
Marathon, and I have never so far been able to write anything with a
modern setting." She writes that since that early time she has never
felt any strangeness or distance about what she had learned of the
people of Greece and Rome and of earlier civilizations. "I was at home
in the period in the way that some people are at home in a place or a
country. I started with Roman Britain, because I knew what the places
looked like, and for me it is important that the three strands of the
actual geographical first-hand knowledge, historical research, and
imagination should all be as strong as I can make them." Later, Miss
Ray was able to travel extensively to the countries in which her later
books were set and in each case makes the reader smell, see and feel
what it was like to live in that land. Born in 1932 in Rugby, England,
Mary Ray has had a varied educational and professional life. She
attended the College of Arts and Crafts in Birmingham and later
trained as a social worker in London and more recently, upon
retirement "took a B.A. Hons in Classical Civilisation at the
University of Kent and then an M.A. in Church History." She worked in
shops, factories, a home for unmarried mothers, in homes for the
elderly and finally as a civil servant until her retirement in 1988.
Throughout most of this time, in addition to traveling and exercising
her creative urge in "making almost anything," she wrote her fourteen
books and three plays. The author's Roman Empire sequence of books, of
which The Ides of April is second, is considered an important
achievement in the field of children's historical fiction. It vividly
captures not only the daily realities of Roman life just after the
time of Christ, but also the excitement and tension of Christianity in
its early days of secret but astounding growth. Each of the five books
takes a different place and set of events, beginning in Corinth (A
Tent for the Sun), then to Rome (The Ides of April), to Athens (Sword
Sleep) and Palestine (Beyond the Desert Gate), and ending in Roman
Britain (Rain from the West); each book is as different in emotional
feel as in the diverse geographical settings. The Ides of April is the
only story with the added dimension of the classic murder mystery. In
all of the books the reader is drawn into the interesting, intertwined
relationships as much as into the historical period. Miss Ray writes,
"Like everyone who is officially retired I now feel busier than I ever
was before. At the moment I live alone with a cat called Phoebe. The
children's book market dried up in England, and I am now writing adult
science fiction, so far unpublished." So, though she has never written
a story with a modern setting, Mary Ray is not one, after all, to look
only to the past.
WORKS
Publications for Children
Fiction
The Voice of Apollo, illustrated by John Cooper. London, Cape, 1964 ;
New York, Farrar Straus, 1965 .
The Eastern Beacon, illustrated by Janet Duchesne. London, Cape,
1965 ; New York, Farrar Straus, 1966 .
Standing Lions, illustrated by Janet Duchesne. London, Faber, 1968 ;
New York, Meredith Press, 1969 .
Spring Tide, illustrated by Janet Duchesne. London, Faber, 1969 .
Shout Against the Wind, illustrated by Peter Branfield. London, Faber,
1970 .
A Tent for the Sun. London, Faber, 1971 .
The Ides of April. London, Faber, 1974 ; New York, Farrar Straus,
1975 .
Sword Sleep. London, Faber, 1975 .
Beyond the Desert Gate. London, Faber, 1977 .
Song of Thunder. London, Faber, 1978 .
Rain from the West. London, Faber, 1980 .
The Windows of Elissa. London, Faber, 1982 .
The Golden Bees, illustrated by Lynda Gray. London, Faber, 1984 .
Plays
The Mary Rose, music by Sydney Sagar (produced Rugby, 1983 ).
Dragons and Dinosaurs, music by Sydney Sagar (produced Cheltenham,
1985 ).
The Dolphin Boy, music by Sydney Sagar (produced Cheltenham, 1985 ).
Other
Living in Earliest Greece, illustrated by Peter Branfield. London,
Faber, 1969 .
Lenona.
(Not to be confused with Mary Lyn Ray or with the popular British dog-
trainer/author.)
Her full name is Mary Eva Pedder Ray.
Contemporary Authors:
"The historical novels of Mary Ray bear witness to a passionate
interest in early western civilisation, as manifested in ancient
Greece, Rome, and Britain, especially at times of turbulence and
cultural change such as the birth of Christianity. Concepts which
might be thought too complex for children's reading are bravely
tackled by this committed writer who often hints at far more that she
can express within the confines of a children's book.
"Her attitude to the classical world is ambivalent. Although she is
attracted to--even obsessed with--ancient culture, as shown in her
detailed, loving descriptions of the landscape and the daily life,
there are terrible drawbacks. Life is rigidly stratified and many of
her characters are poor, enslaved, condemned to drudgery or forced
marriage. Women are especially powerless. Although Roman civilisation
is a highly organised creation, it needs Christian philosophy to
perfect it."
Two plot descriptions:
"Standing lions": "Traces the training of the seventeen-year-old
warrior-king, Diomedes of the house of Argos, in preclassical Greece
ten years prior to the Trojan War."
"Ides of April": "In Rome in 62 A.D., seventeen-year-old Hylas must
find a way to save himself, his mother, and the other household slaves
from imprisonment and imminent death when their master, a prominent
senator, is found murdered."
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&q=%22mary+ray%22+ides
(a few covers)
Excerpt from "The Ides of April":
Mary Ray has had a passion for ancient history, in her own words,
"from the age of six when I started at the deep end with the battle of
Marathon, and I have never so far been able to write anything with a
modern setting." She writes that since that early time she has never
felt any strangeness or distance about what she had learned of the
people of Greece and Rome and of earlier civilizations. "I was at home
in the period in the way that some people are at home in a place or a
country. I started with Roman Britain, because I knew what the places
looked like, and for me it is important that the three strands of the
actual geographical first-hand knowledge, historical research, and
imagination should all be as strong as I can make them." Later, Miss
Ray was able to travel extensively to the countries in which her later
books were set and in each case makes the reader smell, see and feel
what it was like to live in that land. Born in 1932 in Rugby, England,
Mary Ray has had a varied educational and professional life. She
attended the College of Arts and Crafts in Birmingham and later
trained as a social worker in London and more recently, upon
retirement "took a B.A. Hons in Classical Civilisation at the
University of Kent and then an M.A. in Church History." She worked in
shops, factories, a home for unmarried mothers, in homes for the
elderly and finally as a civil servant until her retirement in 1988.
Throughout most of this time, in addition to traveling and exercising
her creative urge in "making almost anything," she wrote her fourteen
books and three plays. The author's Roman Empire sequence of books, of
which The Ides of April is second, is considered an important
achievement in the field of children's historical fiction. It vividly
captures not only the daily realities of Roman life just after the
time of Christ, but also the excitement and tension of Christianity in
its early days of secret but astounding growth. Each of the five books
takes a different place and set of events, beginning in Corinth (A
Tent for the Sun), then to Rome (The Ides of April), to Athens (Sword
Sleep) and Palestine (Beyond the Desert Gate), and ending in Roman
Britain (Rain from the West); each book is as different in emotional
feel as in the diverse geographical settings. The Ides of April is the
only story with the added dimension of the classic murder mystery. In
all of the books the reader is drawn into the interesting, intertwined
relationships as much as into the historical period. Miss Ray writes,
"Like everyone who is officially retired I now feel busier than I ever
was before. At the moment I live alone with a cat called Phoebe. The
children's book market dried up in England, and I am now writing adult
science fiction, so far unpublished." So, though she has never written
a story with a modern setting, Mary Ray is not one, after all, to look
only to the past.
WORKS
Publications for Children
Fiction
The Voice of Apollo, illustrated by John Cooper. London, Cape, 1964 ;
New York, Farrar Straus, 1965 .
The Eastern Beacon, illustrated by Janet Duchesne. London, Cape,
1965 ; New York, Farrar Straus, 1966 .
Standing Lions, illustrated by Janet Duchesne. London, Faber, 1968 ;
New York, Meredith Press, 1969 .
Spring Tide, illustrated by Janet Duchesne. London, Faber, 1969 .
Shout Against the Wind, illustrated by Peter Branfield. London, Faber,
1970 .
A Tent for the Sun. London, Faber, 1971 .
The Ides of April. London, Faber, 1974 ; New York, Farrar Straus,
1975 .
Sword Sleep. London, Faber, 1975 .
Beyond the Desert Gate. London, Faber, 1977 .
Song of Thunder. London, Faber, 1978 .
Rain from the West. London, Faber, 1980 .
The Windows of Elissa. London, Faber, 1982 .
The Golden Bees, illustrated by Lynda Gray. London, Faber, 1984 .
Plays
The Mary Rose, music by Sydney Sagar (produced Rugby, 1983 ).
Dragons and Dinosaurs, music by Sydney Sagar (produced Cheltenham,
1985 ).
The Dolphin Boy, music by Sydney Sagar (produced Cheltenham, 1985 ).
Other
Living in Earliest Greece, illustrated by Peter Branfield. London,
Faber, 1969 .
Lenona.