Meriol Trevor

Meriol Trevor (15 April 1919 – 12 January 2000) was a British Roman Catholic writer of children's books, historical novels and biographies. Her two-volume biography of Cardinal Newman won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1963.

Biography

Meriol Trevor was born in London and grew up in Kent and Cambridge.^[1] She was educated at Perse Girls' School, Cambridge and St Hugh's College, Oxford, where she studied classics and philosophy.^[2] After graduating from Oxford in 1942, she took several temporary jobs before going to Italy after the war to help with reconstruction.^[1] After encountering Catholic culture in Italy, she became a Roman Catholic in 1950.^[2]

Her children's books strongly reflect her Catholic faith, presenting themes of conflict and redemption often in mythic form. A number of her historical novels are set in Romano-Britain and early Christian Europe.^[2] Her two-volume biography of Cardinal Newman, Newman: The Pillar of Cloud and Newman: Light in Winter, published in 1962, received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography.^[3]

From the 1960s, Trevor lived in Bath, Somerset.^[2] In 1967 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.^[1]

Bibliography

Novels

• The Last of Britain (1956)
• The New People (1957)
• A Narrow Place (1958)
• Shadows and Images (1960)
• The City and the World (1970)
• The Holy Images (1971)
• The Two Kingdoms (1973)
• The Fugitives (1973) (Luxembourg series 1)
• The Marked Man (1974) (Luxembourg series 2)
• The Enemy at Home (1974) (Luxembourg series 3)
• The Forgotten Country (1975) (Luxembourg series 4)
• The Treacherous Paths (1976) (Luxembourg series 5)
• The Fortunate Marriage (1976) (Warstowe Series 1)
• The Civil Prisoners (1977) (Warstowe Series 2)
• The Fortunes of Peace (1978) (Luxembourg series 6)
• The Wanton Fires(1979) (Warstowe Series 3)
• The Sun with a Face (1982) (Warstowe Series 4)
• The Golden Palaces (1986)

Books for children

• The Forest and the Kingdom (1949) (World Dionysius Novels 1)
• Hunt the King, Hide the Fox (1950) (World Dionysius Novels 2)
• The Fires and the Stars (1951) (World Dionysius Novels 3)
• Sun Slower, Sun Faster (1955)
• The Treasure Hunt (1957)
• Merlin's Ring (1957)
• The Other Side of the Moon (1957)
• The Caravan War (1958)
• The Sparrow Child (1958)
• Four Odd Ones (1958)
• William's Wild Day Out (1963)
• The Rose Round (1963)
• The Midsummer Maze (1964)
• Lights in a Dark Town (1964)
• The King of the Castle (1966)
• The Crystal Snowstorm (1997) (Letzenstein Chronicles Book 1)
• Following the Phoenix (1998) (Letzenstein Chronicles Book 2)
• Angel and Dragon (1999) (Letzenstein Chronicles Book 3)
• The Rose and Crown (1999) (Letzenstein Chronicles Book 4)

Poetry

• Midsummer, Midwinter and Other Poems (1957)

Nonfiction

• Newman: The Pillar of the Cloud (1962)
• Newman: Light in Winter (1962)
• Newman Today (1963) (23-page Catholic Truth Society pamphlet)
• Newman: A Portrait Restored. An Ecumenical Revaluation (with John Coulson and A.M. Allchin) (1965)
• Apostle of Rome: A Life of St Philip Neri, 1515-1595 (1966)
• Pope John (1967); new edition Pope John: Blessed John XXIII (2000)
• Prophets and Guardians: Renewal and Tradition in the Church (1969)
• The Arnolds: Thomas Arnold and His Family (1973)
• Newman's Journey (1974)
• The Shadow of a Crown: The Life Story of James II of England and VII of Scotland (1988)
• John Henry Newman: Apostle to the Doubtful (with Leonie Caldecott) (2001)

References

External links

• 1989 Interview with Meriol Trevor
• Meriol Trevor at Bethlehem Books
• 5th Meriol Trevor Lecture
• Obituary—in The Guardian, 31 Jan. 2000.
• Works by Meriol Trevor at Open Library
• Meriol Trevor at Library of Congress, with 39 library catalogue records

This page was last edited on 25 June 2022, at 13:31