Jan Needle
Encyclopedia
Jan Needle is an English author born in 1943. He was born and grew up in Portsmouth
on the South coast of England, coming from a family with strong naval and military connections. He has written over thirty novels, as well as books and plays for adults and children, books of criticism, cartoons and radio and television serials and series.
After studying to becoming a journalist and despite poor grades in English, he moved to the North-West of England at age 20 to work for the Daily Herald newspaper. At 25 he took a Drama degree course at Manchester University, quitting full time journalism after working for various papers. His first novel, Albeson and the Germans, was published in 1977.
In the early '90s, he wrote four adult novels under the pseudonym 'Frank Kippax': The Scar, The Butcher's Bill, Other People's Blood and Fear of Night and Darkness.
His historical nautical series, the William Bentley novels, are known for showing the British Navy in a less favourable light than most fictional books in the genre tend to, and for removing some of the romantic gloss that is often attached to the genre.
He currently lives in Uppermill
, Saddleworth
, near Oldham
and West Didsbury, Manchester
in the Northwest of England, and has five children.
; Needle was banned from acting as the keynote speaker at a conference on realism in children's books by teachers due to his book My Mate Shofiq.
He has also had other problems with his works, such as his novel Wild Wood, which re-tells the story of The Wind in the Willows
from the view of the working class characters in the wood, for whom money is short and employment is hard to find. The carefree actions of the upper-class Toad and friends heavily affect the poor characters of the wood, such as Toad's chauffeur, who loses his job. The book was generally seen as a comment on the Margaret Thatcher
-led Tory
Government and the changes in British society at the time.
, Sooty and Sweep, Brookside
and The Bill
.
's Dracula was published, followed in the next few years by a translated and adapted version of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and a re-working of Moby-Dick
.
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
on the South coast of England, coming from a family with strong naval and military connections. He has written over thirty novels, as well as books and plays for adults and children, books of criticism, cartoons and radio and television serials and series.
After studying to becoming a journalist and despite poor grades in English, he moved to the North-West of England at age 20 to work for the Daily Herald newspaper. At 25 he took a Drama degree course at Manchester University, quitting full time journalism after working for various papers. His first novel, Albeson and the Germans, was published in 1977.
In the early '90s, he wrote four adult novels under the pseudonym 'Frank Kippax': The Scar, The Butcher's Bill, Other People's Blood and Fear of Night and Darkness.
His historical nautical series, the William Bentley novels, are known for showing the British Navy in a less favourable light than most fictional books in the genre tend to, and for removing some of the romantic gloss that is often attached to the genre.
He currently lives in Uppermill
Uppermill
Uppermill is a village in Saddleworth—a civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England, historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. It lies on the River Tame in a valley amongst the South Pennines, east of Oldham, and east-northeast of Manchester...
, Saddleworth
Saddleworth
Saddleworth is a civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham in Greater Manchester, England. It comprises several villages and hamlets amongst the west side of the Pennine hills: Uppermill, Greenfield, Dobcross, Delph, Diggle and others...
, near Oldham
Oldham
Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amid the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, south-southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of the city of Manchester...
and West Didsbury, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
in the Northwest of England, and has five children.
Controversy
Some of his works have caused slight controversy in the past: Don't Tell The Frogs, a comedy focusing on the nuclear industry, was pulled after pressure; the Government attempted to block the running of the television serial A Game of Soldiers, due to its subject of the Falklands WarFalklands War
The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
; Needle was banned from acting as the keynote speaker at a conference on realism in children's books by teachers due to his book My Mate Shofiq.
He has also had other problems with his works, such as his novel Wild Wood, which re-tells the story of The Wind in the Willows
The Wind in the Willows
The Wind in the Willows is a classic of children's literature by Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. Alternately slow moving and fast paced, it focuses on four anthropomorphised animal characters in a pastoral version of England...
from the view of the working class characters in the wood, for whom money is short and employment is hard to find. The carefree actions of the upper-class Toad and friends heavily affect the poor characters of the wood, such as Toad's chauffeur, who loses his job. The book was generally seen as a comment on the Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
-led Tory
Tory
Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...
Government and the changes in British society at the time.
Wiliam Bentley
- A Fine Boy for Killing (1979)
- The Wicked Trade (1998)
- The Spithead Nymph (2004)
- Undertaker's Wind (2006)
Television
Needle has written serials for television, such as Truckers, A Game of Soldiers, Behind the Bike Sheds and Soft Soap, and has also written episodes for various well-known series, including Duckula, Thomas the Tank EngineThomas the Tank Engine
Thomas the Tank Engine is a fictional steam locomotive in The Railway Series books by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry and his son, Christopher. He became the most popular character in the series, and the accompanying television spin-off series, Thomas and Friends.Thomas is a tank engine, painted blue...
, Sooty and Sweep, Brookside
Brookside
Brookside is a defunct British soap opera set in Liverpool, England. The series began on the launch night of Channel 4 on 2 November 1982, and ran for 21 years until 4 November 2003...
and The Bill
The Bill
The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...
.
Re-Edits
Recently, Needle has re-written classic novels, to make them more accessible for children. In 2004, his cut down version of Bram StokerBram Stoker
Abraham "Bram" Stoker was an Irish novelist and short story writer, best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula...
's Dracula was published, followed in the next few years by a translated and adapted version of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and a re-working of Moby-Dick
Moby-Dick
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, was written by American author Herman Melville and first published in 1851. It is considered by some to be a Great American Novel and a treasure of world literature. The story tells the adventures of wandering sailor Ishmael, and his voyage on the whaleship Pequod,...
.