Geoffrey Trease
(1909)

Geoffrey Robert Trease was born in Nottingham. He was the youngest son and his father was a merchant. He studied at Nottingham High School and his most favorite subject was history. Nevertheless, he was forced to study Classics and won a scholarship to Oxford. He started studying there in 1928 but left school a year later because he was not satisfied with the way of teaching. Then he changed a job several times - he worked as a journalist and then as a teacher. He also married another member of the teaching staff then gave up teaching and turned to freelance journalism again. 

At approximately that time he decided to start writing for children. His ambitions were high; he wanted to create something completely out of line, something that would take the reader's breath away.

He sent a letter to a left-wing publisher suggesting that he would rewrite the story of Robin Hood. In HIS version Robin would become a proletarian - his enemies would be wealthy oppressors. The idea was accepted and the story (Bows Against the Barons) was published in 1934 (and one of Robin's famous statement was: 'Don't call me "sir". We are all equal in Sherwood - comrades.'). The book appeared for the second time in 1966 - but this time, Trease had to change a few things because of another political atmosphere (understandable, eh?). Anyway, apart from the political pattern in the book, critics acknowledged Trease's way of narrating.

Another book of his, Comrades for the Charter (that followed Bows Against the Barons) came out the following years and its background was again historical - this time it was about the Chartist movement. There were also a few attempts to write mystery stories - The Christmas Holiday Mystery (1937) and Detectives of the Dales (1938). The main motif in Cue for Treason (1940) was the English Civil War.

During the Second World War he became an infantry private. Off duty, he started lecturing on children's literature in pubilc libraries - his lectures were successful and he repeated them several times (hundreds of times). And then one day - during the lecture - two girls asked him to write a story about ordianry chdilren going to school as they did. This was something completely new at that time and Trease seized the chance - the result was No Boats on Bannermere (1949) and its four sequels.

In 1947, he started writing a survey of children' s literature (Tales Out of School - 1949). This brought new light on the whole thing - he maintained the strong criticism and added the the moral and political attitude to the subject were of great importance. In 1964 the book was republished but Trease had to change a lot because of great improvement and development in children' s books. Of course, he had an axe to grind.

Apart from children's books he has written also a number of radio and television plays, adult novels and non-fiction bot for children and adults (one of them being a children' s biography of D. H. Lawrence - 1973) or books of history.