Nicholas Stuart Gray was a British

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 actor and playwright, perhaps best known for his work in children's theatre in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. He was also an author of children's fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

; he wrote a number of novels, a dozen plays, and many short stories. Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman

Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...

 has written that Gray "is one of those authors I loved as a boy who holds up even better on rereading as an adult". Many other modern fantasy authors, such as Hilari Bell

Hilari Bell

Hilari Bell is an American fantasy author. She is the author of several science-fiction and fantasy novels including the critically acclaimed Farsala Trilogy.Bell worked as a reference librarian, but quit in 2005 to write full time...

 , Cecilia Dart-Thornton

Cecilia Dart-Thornton

Cecilia Dart-Thornton is an Australian author of fantasy novels, most notably the Bitterbynde Trilogy.-Biography:Cecilia Dart-Thornton was born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, graduating from Monash University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology. She became a schoolteacher before...

 , and Garth Nix

Garth Nix

Garth Nix is an Australian author of young adult fantasy novels, most notably the Old Kingdom series, The Seventh Tower series, and The Keys to the Kingdom series. He has frequently been asked if his name is a pseudonym, to which he has responded, "I guess people ask me because it sounds like the...

 , cite Gray's work as something they enjoyed as children.

Perhaps his best-known books are The Seventh Swan and Grimbold's Other World. Gray often produced adaptations or continuations of traditional fairy tale

Fairy tale

A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...

s and fantasy works, as in his Further Adventures of Puss in Boots. His The Stone Cage is a re-telling of Rapunzel

Rapunzel

"Rapunzel" is a German fairy tale in the collection assembled by the Brothers Grimm, and first published in 1812 as part of Children's and Household Tales. The Grimm Brothers' story is an adaptation of the fairy tale Persinette by Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force originally published in 1698...

from a cat's point of view. Over The Hills to Fabylon is about a city whose king has the ability to make it fly off across the mountains if he feels it is in danger.

Gray maintained a long-term collaborative relationship with set designer and illustrator Joan Jefferson Farjeon (sister of Eleanor Farjeon

Eleanor Farjeon

Eleanor Farjeon was an English author of children's stories and plays, poetry, biography, history and satire. Many of her works had charming illustrations by Edward Ardizzone. Some of her correspondence has also been published...

 and Harry Farjeon

Harry Farjeon

Harry Farjeon was a British composer.He was born in Hohokus, New Jersey, USA, the eldest son of Jewish author Benjamin Farjeon, and Margaret, the daughter of American actor Joseph Jefferson. His parents returned to Britain when he was a baby and he lived in Hampstead in London for the rest of his...

); she supplied the costume and scenic designs for many of the theatrical productions of his plays, as well as the illustrations of his books.

Selected children's plays

• Beauty and the Beast (1951)
• The Princess and the Swineherd (1952)
• The Tinder Box (1954)
• The Marvellous Story of Puss in Boots (1955)
• The Imperial Nightingale (1957)
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1969)

Other works

• Over the Hills to Fabylon (1954)
• The Other Cinderella (1958)
• Down in the Cellar (1961)
• The Seventh Swan (1962)
• Grimbold's Other World (1963)
• The Stone Cage (1963)
• The Apple Stone (1965)
• Mainly in Moonlight (1965)
• The Boys: Cats With Everything (1968)
• New Lamps for Old (1968)
• The Further Adventures of Puss in Boots (1971)
• The Edge of Evening (1976)
• Killer's Cookbook (1976)
• Facets: Poems and Pictures (1977)
• The Wardens of the Weir (1978)
• A Wind From Nowhere (1978)
• The Garland of Filigree (1979)
• The Sorcerer's Apprentices (1986)

External links