Elliott, Janice
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1931-1995) UK author from 1962 of sophisticated novels of domestic passion which frequently reach for a sense of brooding Equipoise with the supernatural and, occasionally, sf. Her sf novel, The Summer People (1980), places in a Near-Future world one of her typical casts, who decide it would be a good idea, while society collapses off-stage, to remain esconced in their holiday resort for the time being; a similar proleptic dread and torpor afflicts the protagonists of The Country of her Dreams (1982), set in a Balkan city where the Art of Europe is perhaps destined to perish in a nuclear Holocaust. The Arthurian Sword and the Dream sequence for older children – The King Awakes (1987) and The Empty Throne (1988) – arouses the once and future king into a Post-Holocaust UK. Dr Gruber's Daughter (1986), The Sadness of Witches (1987) and Figures in the Sand (1994) are tales which either invoke the occult directly or by inescapable inference. City of Gates (1992) is set in a Jerusalem guest-house which exists, via Time-loops, in every relevant epoch. [JC]
Janice Elliott
born Derby, East Midlands: 13 October 1931
died 25 July 1995
works
series
Sword and the Dream
- The King Awakes (London: Walker Books, 1987) [Sword and the Dream: hb/Grahame Baker]
- The Empty Throne (London: Walker Books, 1988) [Sword and the Dream: hb/Grahame Baker]
individual titles
- The Summer People (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1980) [hb/]
- The Country of her Dreams (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1982) [hb/]
- Magic (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1983) [hb/]
- Dr Gruber's Daughter (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1986) [hb/]
- The Sadness of Witches (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1987) [hb/]
- City of Gates (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1992) [hb/Marcel Moulem]
- Figures in the Sand (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1994) [hb/]
links
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