# Peter Dickinson
**Peter Dickinson** (Peter Malcolm de Brissac Dickinson; 16 December 1927 – 16 December 2015) was a Zambian-born English novelist who wrote for both adults and children, winning the Carnegie Medal twice and the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger twice.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/17/peter-dickinson) He is best known for the Changes trilogy, the science fiction novel *Eva*, and a series of detective novels featuring Inspector James Pibble.[2](https://www.encyclopedia.com/children/academic-and-educational-journals/peter-dickinson-1927) The name also belongs to two other British figures covered by the sources: a composer and writer on music (1934–2023)[3](https://peterdickinson.info/) and a Canadian modernist architect who died in 1961.[4](https://canadianarchitect.com/the-life-and-times-of-peter-dickinson/) This article is about the novelist.
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born / died | 16 December 1927, Livingstone, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia); 16 December 2015, aged 88[1](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/17/peter-dickinson) |
| Education | King's Scholar at Eton (1941–46); King's College, Cambridge (1948–51), classics and English[1](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/17/peter-dickinson) |
| Pre-writing career | Punch magazine, assistant editor and reviewer, 1952–1969, ending as deputy editor[1](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/17/peter-dickinson) |
| First novels | *Skin Deep* (also *The Glass-Sided Ants' Nest*, 1968) and *A Pride of Heroes* (1969), each winning the CWA Gold Dagger[1](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/17/peter-dickinson) |
| Breakthrough children's work | The Changes trilogy: *The Weathermonger* (1968), *Heartsease* (1969), *The Devil's Children* (1970); BBC television adaptation in 1975[5](https://www.peterdickinson.com/books/changes/) |
| Carnegie Medal | Twice, for *Tulku* and *City of Gold*, the first author to receive the medal two times[2](https://www.encyclopedia.com/children/academic-and-educational-journals/peter-dickinson-1927) |
| Output | Almost 60 books translated into 53 languages; the Open British National Bibliography lists 62 published titles[6](https://www.peterdickinson.com/) • [7](https://obnb.uk/a00008142-peter-dickinson) |
| Later honors | Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (1999); OBE for services to literature (2009)[1](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/17/peter-dickinson) • [6](https://www.peterdickinson.com/) |
## Life
Dickinson was born in [Livingstone](https://www.edgepedia.org/livingstone), in what was then the colony of [Northern Rhodesia](https://www.edgepedia.org/northern-rhodesia), where his father, Richard Sebastian Willoughby Dickinson, worked in the colonial civil service; he described the town as "within earshot of Victoria Falls".[1](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/17/peter-dickinson) The family returned to Britain in 1935 so that the boys could be educated in England, and his father died shortly after their arrival.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/17/peter-dickinson) • [2](https://www.encyclopedia.com/children/academic-and-educational-journals/peter-dickinson-1927) He won a scholarship to [Eton College](https://www.edgepedia.org/eton-college) in 1941, where he was a King's Scholar until 1946, then served in the British Army as a district signals officer, being too young to fight in the war.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/17/peter-dickinson) • [2](https://www.encyclopedia.com/children/academic-and-educational-journals/peter-dickinson-1927) From 1948 to 1951 he studied at King's College, Cambridge, reading classics and then English.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/17/peter-dickinson)
## Punch and the detective novels
On the suggestion of one of his English tutors, Dickinson applied for a post as assistant editor at *[Punch](https://www.edgepedia.org/punch-magazine)*, the London humor magazine, and stayed seventeen years, working under three editors including [Malcolm Muggeridge](https://www.edgepedia.org/malcolm-muggeridge) and ending as deputy editor.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/17/peter-dickinson) One of his duties was reviewing detective fiction, which gave him the idea for a detective novel of his own.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/17/peter-dickinson)
His first novel, *Skin Deep*, published in 1968 under the title *The Glass-Sided Ants' Nest*, introduced Inspector James Pibble of Scotland Yard and won the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for crime novel of the year; the sequel, *A Pride of Heroes* (1969, published in the US as *The Old English Peep Show*), won the [Gold Dagger](https://www.edgepedia.org/gold-dagger) again.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/17/peter-dickinson) • [8](https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/music-history-composers-and-performers-biographies/peter-dickinson) Six Pibble novels followed in total, published at roughly one a year through the 1970s.[9](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/books/features/invisible-ink-no-110-peter-dickinson-6776955.html) Critics noted that the books blurred the line between crime fiction and mainstream literature, carrying the anthropological and sociological interests that also marked his children's writing.[10](https://www.enotes.com/topics/peter-dickinson/in-depth)
## Children's fiction
While writing his detective story Dickinson also began *The Weathermonger*, published in 1968 as his first children's book.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/17/peter-dickinson) It opens the Changes trilogy, in which the people of Britain turn with horror against all machines and revert to a medieval way of life; the sequels are *Heartsease* (1969) and *The Devil's Children* (1970).[5](https://www.peterdickinson.com/books/changes/) The BBC dramatized the trilogy as *The Changes* in 1975.[5](https://www.peterdickinson.com/books/changes/)
He then produced a children's book almost every year through the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, moving between realistic stories, historical adventure, and fantasy.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/17/peter-dickinson) *Tulku* (1979) is a historical novel set in China and Tibet at the time of the [Boxer Rebellion](https://www.edgepedia.org/boxer-rebellion), and *City of Gold* (1980) retells [Old Testament](https://www.edgepedia.org/old-testament) stories in the oral tradition, each with a different narrative voice.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/17/peter-dickinson) • [2](https://www.encyclopedia.com/children/academic-and-educational-journals/peter-dickinson-1927) Later titles include *Eva* (1988), about a girl whose mind is transplanted into the body of a chimpanzee in an overpopulated near future; *AK* (1990), a political thriller about a boy soldier in an unnamed African state; *The Kin* (1998), a saga of early humans; and *The Ropemaker* (2001) with its sequel *Angel Isle* (2006).[1](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/17/peter-dickinson) • [11](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/peter-dickinson-shockheaded-peter-97652.html) *The Kin* was published in the United States as four linked novels, *Suth*, *Noli*, *Po*, and *Mana*, and in the UK as a single volume.[6](https://www.peterdickinson.com/)
A recurring critical description of his method is the framing device that the reviewer Janice Del Negro called "fairy tale anthropology": imaginative alternate universes that reflect humanity's past and speculate on its future.[2](https://www.encyclopedia.com/children/academic-and-educational-journals/peter-dickinson-1927) Dickinson described his own aim plainly: "My purpose in writing a children's book is to tell a story, and everything is secondary to that; but when secondary considerations arise they have to be properly dealt with."[1](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/17/peter-dickinson)
## Awards
Dickinson became the first two-time recipient of the Carnegie Medal, awarded annually by librarians for the outstanding new English-language children's book, winning back to back for *Tulku* and *City of Gold*.[2](https://www.encyclopedia.com/children/academic-and-educational-journals/peter-dickinson-1927) The sources date the wins differently: the Guardian obituary gives 1980 for *Tulku* and 1981 for *City of Gold*,[1](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/17/peter-dickinson) while Encyclopedia.com gives 1979 and 1980.[2](https://www.encyclopedia.com/children/academic-and-educational-journals/peter-dickinson-1927) He also won the Whitbread Award twice, for *Tulku* and *AK*, and the Guardian children's fiction prize in 1977 for *The Blue Hawk* (1976).[2](https://www.encyclopedia.com/children/academic-and-educational-journals/peter-dickinson-1927) • [8](https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/music-history-composers-and-performers-biographies/peter-dickinson) The Phoenix Award, given to books that did not win a major award on first publication, went to *The Seventh Raven* in 2001 and to *Eva* in 2008.[12](https://www.nocloo.com/peter-dickinson-biography/) He was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal nine times in total, and was a runner-up for the inaugural children's laureate post in 1999.[2](https://www.encyclopedia.com/children/academic-and-educational-journals/peter-dickinson-1927) • [1](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/17/peter-dickinson)
## Personal life and late work
In 1953 Dickinson married the artist Mary Rose Barnard, with whom he had four children: Philippa, Dorothy, John, and James.[8](https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/music-history-composers-and-performers-biographies/peter-dickinson) Mary died in 1988, and he married the American children's author Robin McKinley, whom the Guardian dates to 1991 and Encyclopedia.com to January 1992.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/17/peter-dickinson) • [8](https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/music-history-composers-and-performers-biographies/peter-dickinson) With McKinley he collaborated on the short-story collections *Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits* (2002) and *Fire: Tales of Elemental Spirits* (2009); *Earth and Air: Tales of Elemental Creatures* (2012) appeared under his name alone, and he also published a poetry collection, *The Weir* (2007).[1](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/17/peter-dickinson)
He was elected a Fellow of the [Royal Society of Literature](https://www.edgepedia.org/royal-society-of-literature) in 1999 and appointed OBE in 2009.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/17/peter-dickinson) [Philip Pullman](https://www.edgepedia.org/philip-pullman) called him "one of the masters of children's literature".[6](https://www.peterdickinson.com/) Dickinson died on 16 December 2015, his eighty-eighth birthday.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/17/peter-dickinson)
## References
1. [Peter Dickinson obituary, The Guardian (17 December 2015)](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/17/peter-dickinson)
2. [Peter Dickinson 1927–, Encyclopedia.com (children's literature entry)](https://www.encyclopedia.com/children/academic-and-educational-journals/peter-dickinson-1927)
3. [Peter Dickinson (1934–2023), composer, official website](https://peterdickinson.info/)
4. [The Life and Times of Peter Dickinson, Canadian Architect (2010)](https://canadianarchitect.com/the-life-and-times-of-peter-dickinson/)
5. [The Changes, Peter Dickinson Books](https://www.peterdickinson.com/books/changes/)
6. [Peter Dickinson Books, official author site](https://www.peterdickinson.com/)
7. [Books by Peter Dickinson, Open British National Bibliography](https://obnb.uk/a00008142-peter-dickinson)
8. [Dickinson, Peter (Malcolm de Brissac) 1927–, Encyclopedia.com (biography entry)](https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/music-history-composers-and-performers-biographies/peter-dickinson)
9. [Invisible Ink: No 110 – Peter Dickinson, The Independent (2012)](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/books/features/invisible-ink-no-110-peter-dickinson-6776955.html)
10. [Peter Dickinson Analysis, eNotes](https://www.enotes.com/topics/peter-dickinson/in-depth)
11. [Peter Dickinson: Shockheaded Peter, The Independent (2003)](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/peter-dickinson-shockheaded-peter-97652.html)
12. [Peter Dickinson Biography, Golden Age Children's Book Illustrations](https://www.nocloo.com/peter-dickinson-biography/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Literature and written works › Writers and literary biographies › Children's, comics, and media-genre writers › Children's and YA authors › Middle grade and classic children's authors*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 19, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 19, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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