Pauline Clarke is an English writer who has written for young children under the name Helen Clare, for older children as Pauline Clarke, and more recently for adults under her married name, Pauline Hunter Blair. Her best-known work is The Twelve and the Genii

The Twelve and the Genii

The Twelve and the Genii is a children's fantasy novel by Pauline Clarke, published in 1962. It was awarded the Carnegie Medal and the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis. Its title in the U.S. is The Return of the Twelves...

which won the Carnegie Medal

Carnegie Medal

The Carnegie Medal is a literary award established in 1936 in honour of Scottish philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and given annually to an outstanding book for children and young adults. It is awarded by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals...

 in 1962

1962 in literature

The year 1962 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*January 7 - In an article in the New York Times Book Review, Gore Vidal calls Evelyn Waugh "our time's first satirist."...

 and the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis

Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis

The Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis is an annual award established in 1956 by the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth to recognise outstanding works of children's literature. It is Germany's only state-funded literary award. In the past, authors from many countries...

 in 1968.

Biography

Anne Pauline Clarke was born in Kirkby-in-Ashfield

Kirkby-in-Ashfield

Kirkby-in-Ashfield is a market town in Nottinghamshire, England, with a population of 25,265 . It is a part of the Mansfield Urban Area. The Head Offices of Ashfield District Council are located there....

 in Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...

 in 1921 and now lives in Bottisham

Bottisham

Bottisham is a village and civil parish in the East Cambridgeshire district of Cambridgeshire, England, about east of Cambridge, halfway to Newmarket. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 1,983.-Church:...

, Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...

. She attended schools in London and Colchester

Colchester

Colchester is an historic town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester in Essex, England.At the time of the census in 2001, it had a population of 104,390. However, the population is rapidly increasing, and has been named as one of Britain's fastest growing towns. As the...

. Until 1943 she studied English at Somerville College, Oxford

Somerville College, Oxford

Somerville College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, and was one of the first women's colleges to be founded there...

, then worked as a journalist and wrote for children's magazines. Between 1948 and 1972 she wrote books for children.

She wrote many types of children's book including fantasies, family comedies, historical novels and poetry. Her Five Dolls books were very popular, but she achieved her greatest success with The Twelve and the Genii, published in America as The Return of the Twelves, which received the Carnegie Medal

Carnegie Medal

The Carnegie Medal is a literary award established in 1936 in honour of Scottish philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and given annually to an outstanding book for children and young adults. It is awarded by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals...

, a Lewis Carroll Shelf Award

Lewis Carroll Shelf Award

The Lewis Carroll Shelf Award was started in 1958 by Dr. David C. Davis with the assistance of Prof. Lola Pierstorff, Director Instructional Materials Center, Univ. of Wisconsin and Madeline Allen Davis, WHA Wisconsin Public Radio. Awards were presented annually at the Wisconsin Book Conference...

 and the German Kinderbuchpreis. These books, like many of her others, were illustrated by Cecil Leslie

Cecil Mary Leslie

Cecil Mary Leslie was an engraver, portrait painter, sculptor and illustrator. She studied at the Royal Academy Schools, and exhibited from 1923 until 1939 at the Royal Academy; the Society of Women Artists; the Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts; the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; the New English...

.

In 1969 she married the historian Peter Hunter Blair

Peter Hunter Blair

Peter Hunter Blair was an English academic and historian specializing in the Anglo-Saxon period. In 1969 he married Pauline Clarke. She edited his Anglo-Saxon Northumbria in 1984....

. She edited his Anglo-Saxon Northumbria in 1984. In 1999 she published her first adult book, The Nelson Boy, a painstakingly-researched historical reconstruction of Horatio Nelson's childhood, which was followed by a sequel about his early voyages.

As Helen Clare

• Five Dolls in a House (1953)
• Five Dolls and the Monkey (1956)
• Five Dolls in the Snow (1957)
• Five Dolls and Their Friends (1959)
• Five Dolls and the Duke (1963)
• Merlin's Magic (1953)
• Bel the Giant and Other Stories, illustrated by Peggy Fortnum (1956) (republished as The Cat and the Fiddle and Other Stories, illustrated by Ida Pellei (1968)
• Seven White Pebbles, illustrated by Cynthia Abbott,(1960)

As Pauline Clarke

• The Pekinese Princess (1948)
• The Great Can (1952)
• The White Elephant (1952)
• Smith's Hoard (1955) also published as Hidden Gold (1957) and as The Golden Collar (1967)
• Sandy the Sailor (1956)
• The Boy with the Erpingham Hood (1956)
• James the Policeman (1957)
• James and the Robbers (1959)
• Torolv the Fatherless (1959)
• The Lord of the Castle (1960)
• The Robin Hooders (1960)
• Keep the Pot Boiling (1961)
• James and the Smugglers (1961)
• Silver Bells and Cockle Shells (1962)
• The Twelve and the Genii
  The Twelve and the Genii
  The Twelve and the Genii is a children's fantasy novel by Pauline Clarke, published in 1962. It was awarded the Carnegie Medal and the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis. Its title in the U.S. is The Return of the Twelves...
  
  (1962) also published as The Return of the Twelves (1964)
• James and the Black Van (1963)
• Crowds of Creatures (1964)
• The Bonfire Party (1966)
• The Two Faces of Silenus (1972)

As Pauline Hunter Blair

• Anglo-Saxon Northumbria, Variorum by Peter Hunter Blair (editor, with Michael Lapidge
  Michael Lapidge
  Michael Lapidge D.Litt. is a Canadian historical linguist, fellow of Clare College, Cambridge and Fellow of the British Academy A lecturer in Anglo-Saxon studies at Cambridge from 1974 onwards, Lapidge was Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon from 1991 to 1998...
  
  ) (1984)
• The Nelson Boy: An Imaginative Reconstruction of a Great Man's Childhood (1999)
• A Thorough Seaman: The Ships' Logs of Horatio Nelson's Early Voyages Imaginatively Explored (2000)
• Warscape (2002)
• Jacob's Ladder (2003)