Vivien Alcock (23 September 1924 – 11 October 2003) was an English writer of children's books.

Life and career

Alcock was born in Worthing, now in West Sussex, England, and her family moved to Devizes in Wiltshire when she was ten years old. She was the youngest of three sisters who were devoted to reading, drawing, and storytelling. Alcock studied at Oxford University's Ruskin School of Drawing until 1942, when she left the program to join the women's branch of the British Army (Auxiliary Territorial Service). Alcock and Leon Garfield met while she was driving ambulances in Belgium. They married and adopted a daughter, named Jane after Jane Austen. Garfield became a successful children's writer in the 1960s. Her own first book published was The Haunting of Cassie Palmer, from Methuen in 1980 when she was 56 years old. She followed The Haunting with The Stonewalkers (1981) and about twenty others. The Cuckoo Sister (1985) and The Monster Garden (1988) are her two most widely held works as catalogued by WorldCat libraries.

Published writings

Awards and honours