Mooney, Bel 1946–

PERSONAL: Born October 8, 1946, in Liverpool, England; daughter of Edward (a civil servant) and Gladys (a magisterial officer) Mooney; married Jonathan Dimbleby (a television journalist), February 23, 1968; children: Daniel, Kitty. Education: University of London, B.A. (with honors), 1969. Politics: Liberal. Religion: "Humanism."

ADDRESSES: Home—Bath, England. Agent—David Higham Associates, 6-8 Lower John St., Golden Sq., London W1, England.

CAREER: Author and illustrator. Worked as a journalist, 1971–82; also worked as a radio and television broadcaster.

WRITINGS:

FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

(And illustrator) Liza's Yellow Boat, Quartet (London, England), 1980.

I Don't Want To!, illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain, Methuen (London, England), 1985.

The Stove Haunting, illustrated by Jeremy Ford, Methuen (London, England), 1986, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1988.

I Can't Find It!, illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain, Methuen (London, England), 1988.

A Flower of Jet, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1989.

It's Not Fair!, illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain, Methuen (London, England), 1989.

But You Promised!, illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain, Methuen (London, England), 1990.

Why Not?, illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain, Methuen (London, England), 1991.

I Know!, illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain, Methuen (London, England), 1991.

Here's Kitty (includes It's Not Fair!, But You Promised!, and Why Not?), illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain, Mammoth (Rochester, NY), 1992.

Oh, Kitty! (includes I Don't Want To!, I Can't Find It!, and It's Not Fair!), illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain, Dean, 1992.

I Wish!, illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain, Methuen (London, England), 1994.

The Voices of Silence, Methuen (London, England), 1994, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1997.

I'm Scared!, illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain, Methuen (London, England), 1994.

The House with Many Rooms, Heinemann (Portsmouth, NH), 1995.

Why Me?, illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain, Methuen (London, England), 1996.

I'm Bored!, illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain, Methuen (London, England), 1997.

The Green Man, illustrated by Helen Cann, Barefoot Books (Bath, England), 1997.

Joining the Rainbow, Mammoth (London, England), 1997.

I Don't Want to Say Yes!, illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain, Egmont (London, England), 1998.

It's Not My Fault!, illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain, Methuen (London, England), 1999.

Promise You Won't Be Cross, illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain, Egmont (London, England), 1999.

So What!, illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain, Egmont (London, England), 2000.

Kitty's Big Ideas, illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain, Egmont (London, England), 2002.

Kitty's Friends, illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain, Egmont (London, England), 2003.

Mr. Tubs Is Lost, illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain, Egmont (London, England), 2004, Crabtree Publishing (New York, NY), 2006.

FICTION

The Windsurf Boy, Jonathan Cape (London, England), 1983.

The Anderson Question, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1985.

The Fourth of July, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1988.

Lost Footsteps, Viking (New York, NY), 1993.

Intimate Letters, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1997.

The Invasion of Sand, Severn House Publishers (Sutton, Surrey, England), 2006.

OTHER

The Light of Experience (broadcast transcript), BBC Publications (London, England), 1977.

The Year of the Child (nonfiction), Hutchinson (London, England), 1979.

Differences of Opinion (collected journalism), Robson Books (London, England), 1984.

(With Gerald Scarfe) Father Kissmass and Mother Claws (humor), Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1985.

Bel Mooney's Somerset (nonfiction), photographs by Robin Alison Smith, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London, England), 1989, published as The Heart of the West Country, Reader's Digest Association (London, England), 2000.

(Editor) From This Day Forward: An Anthology of Marriage, J. Murray (London, England), 1989, published as The Vintage Book of Marriage, 2000.

(Editor) The Penguin Book of Marriage, Penguin (London, England), 1991.

Perspectives for Living: Conversations on Bereavement and Love, photographs by Robin Alison Smith, J. Murray (London, England), 1992.

Devout Sceptics: Conversations on Faith and Doubt, Hodder & Stoughton (London, England), 2003.

(Editor) You Never Did Learn to Knock: 14 Stories about Girls and Their Mothers, Kingfisher Books (Boston, MA), 2006.

Work represented in anthologies, including People, edited by Susan Hill, Chatto & Windus (London, England), 1983; Over Our Dead Bodies, edited by D. Thompson, Virago (London, England), 1983; Second Nature, edited by Richard Mabey, Jonathan Cape (London, England), 1984; The Counties of England, edited by J. Bishop, Allen & Unwin (London, England), 1985; and New Woman, New Fiction, Pan Books (London, England), 1990. Columnist for various periodicals, including Cosmopolitan, Daily Mirror, Listener, and Times (London, England). Contributor to periodicals. European editor, Viva, mid-1970s.

SIDELIGHTS: Bel Mooney is a British writer, broadcaster, and painter who has written for adults, young adults, and children. "One of my chief problems has always been how to choose what to do," Mooney once commented. "In an age where specialization is the norm, I want to be a novelist, children's author, painter, and interviewer—and the danger is always that I will dissipate my energies."

Mooney's first contribution to children's literature was a children's picture book that she both wrote and illustrated. Liza's Yellow Boat is about the fantasy journey of a little girl whose loneliness ends when she finds two playmates. Designed as a present for a child's fourth birthday, the "hand-written text and naive pictures" create a "perceptive look at child's fantasies," according to Margery Fisher in the Growing Point.

The Stove Haunting, Mooney's first young adult novel, is a time-travel fantasy set in modern England about a boy who, when exploring an old stove, suddenly finds himself thrown back to the 1830s. Writing in the Voice of Youth Advocates, Rosemary Moran noted that Mooney "describes the squalor of the times … with understated but vivid language." A critic in Kirkus Reviews felt that "journalist Mooney writes convincingly of the poverty, injustice, and unrest in England in the 1830's." A reviewer for Junior Bookshelf also pointed out this strength, concluding that the "whole is well shaped and sufficiently moving to suggest the grief and passion behind social change." Writing in the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Roger Sutton commented that the "book has much to say about the conflict between the needs and wishes of individuals and those of humanity, and the struggle is intensely personalized through Daniel's own relation-ships."

Mooney's second novel for young people also deals with unions. A Flower of Jet is set in the north of England during a miners' strike and follows the ups and downs of two families as represented in the friendship of two teenagers, Tom and Melanie. "Bel Mooney is at home in this background and uses it skillfully," noted a reviewer in the Junior Bookshelf, who concluded by describing A Flower of Jet as a "well written and absorbing book." Linda Newberry, of Books for Keeps, commented that the "straightforward style and abundance of incident will appeal to readers of twelve and over."

Mooney went farther abroad for inspiration in the young adult novel, The Voices of Silence, which is set in Romania in 1989, just prior to the overthrow of the communist dictator Ceausescu's regime. Thirteen-year-old Flora lives with her family in one of Bucharest's tower blocks of flats and her best friend Alys lives nearby. The two are close until the arrival of Daniel Ghiban at their school. Daniel offers Flora "privileged" food that he claims his mother gets as a result of working at an embassy. The only thing Flora has to share in turn is the secret that her father is planning to flee the country. Alys, whose parents are involved in the underground, does not trust Daniel; her parents get word that the secret police are about to arrest Flora's father. Confused by the turn of events, Flora and Alys are eventually caught up in the battle in Palace Square that unseats the regime. Betsy Hearne noted in the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books that "Mooney perceptively weaves the normal strains between adolescents and parents into the abnormal stress of families suffering from poverty and dangerous oppression." In the Junior Bookshelf, a critic felt that Mooney "created a realistic heroine, who gives a graphic account of the deprived and menacing circumstances which form the background to her life." Writing in Horn Book, Roger Sutton commented that The Voices of Silence was a novel that "effectively blends introspection with suspense." Sutton concluded that "this is romantic in story but realistically grim in setting, and Flora is a credible nexus for the dramatic events."

Mooney has also created several picture books, each based around incidents in the life of young Kitty, a character based on her own daughter. Each of these works thematically investigates the concerns of young children; most involve seven to eight incidents suitable for reading aloud to five-year-olds. Reviewing the second book in the series, I Can't Find It!, Jill Bennett noted in Books for Keeps that the "well-observed, amusing stories" about Kitty losing her own possessions and finally helping her mother to find her misplaced keys were "just right for reading aloud." Why Not? has Kitty pressing adults for reasons and logic to their rules, while But You Promised! deals with disappointments. Reviewing the latter title in Books for Keeps, Judith Sharman wrote that "Bel Mooney's formula triumphs again. Kitty is a heroine every child will identify with and over whom every parent must surely chuckle." Fear in all its guises is at the center of I'm Scared!, which relates seven stories dealing with subjects ranging from worries about the dark to performing in the school play. S. Williams, writing in Books for Your Children, pointed out that "emergent readers will benefit from the challenge of tackling a 'real book' of stories that gives them insight to normal anxieties," while Liz Waterland in Books for Keeps concluded that the book was an "excellent and intelligent collection." In assessing the series in another review in Books for Keeps, Waterland noted that "lively, funny Kitty is very popular with all youngsters because they recognize so much of themselves in her."

Mooney once pointed out: "I am drawn to literature of ideas and have F. Scott Fitzgerald's dictum pinned above my word processor: 'That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you're not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.'"

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 1, 1986, review of The Anderson Question, p. 793; June 1, 1988, review of The Stove Haunting, p. 1677; April 1, 1997, Susan Dove Lempke, review of The Voices of Silence, p. 1322.

Book Report, May-June, 1997, William McLoughlin, review of The Voices of Silence, p. 33.

Books, July, 1989, review of The Fourth of July, p. 11.

Books and Bookman, November, 1984, review of The Windsurf Boy, p. 37; April, 1985, review of The Anderson Question, p. 31.

Books for Keeps, July, 1987, review of I Don't Want To!, p. 14; September, 1988, review of I Don't Want To!, p. 19; January, 1990, review of I Can't Find It!, p. 6; July, 1991, review of It's Not Fair!, p. 9; November, 1991, review of A Flower of Jet, pp. 10-11; March, 1992, Judith Sharman, review of But You Promised!, p. 9; March, 1993, review of I Know!, p. 9; March, 1996, review of I'm Scared!, p. 7; March, 1996, review of The Voices of Silence, p. 17; May, 1996, p. 17; March, 2000, review of Promise You Won't Be Cross, p. 24.

Books for Your Children, summer, 1986, review of I Don't Want To!, p. 7; autumn, 1987, review of I Don't Want To!, p. 19; spring, 1995, S. Williams, review of I'm Scared!, p. 14.

British Book News, October, 1983, review of The Windsurf Boy, p. 645; June, 1985, review of The Anderson Question, p. 363; February, 1986, review of The Windsurf Boy, p. 75; September, 1986, review of The Stove Haunting.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, May, 1988, Roger Sutton, review of The Stove Haunting, p. 185; April, 1997, Betsy Hearne, review of The Voices of Silence, p. 291.

Children's Book Review Service, October, 1988, review of The Stove Haunting, p. 22.

Children's Bookwatch, October, 1997, review of The Voices of Silence, p. 3.

Community Care, March 18, 1993, Maureen Oswin, review of Perspectives for Living: Conversations on Bereavement and Love, p. 28.

Girls' Life, August-September, 1997, review of The Voices of Silence, p. 31.

Growing Point, September, 1979, review of The Year of the Child, p. 3585; March, 1981, Margery Fisher, review of Liza's Yellow Boat, p. 3854; November, 1990, p. 5437; January, 1991, p. 5466.

Horn Book, March-April, 1997, Roger Sutton, review of The Voices of Silence, p. 203.

Horn Book Guide, fall, 1997, review of The Voices of Silence, p. 305.

Illustrated London News, May, 1988, review of The Fourth of July, p. 85; spring, 1993, review of Lost Footsteps, p. 82.

Junior Bookshelf, February, 1980, review of The Year of the Child, p. 14; October, 1986, review of The Stove Haunting, p. 193; August, 1989, review of I Can't Find It!, p. 176; June, 1990, review of A Flower of Jet, p. 143; October, 1991, review of I Know!, p. 215; February, 1995, review of I'm Scared!, p. 23, and review of The Voices of Silence, p. 41.

Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 1985, review of The Anderson Question, p. 1350; February 1, 1988, review of The Stove Haunting, p. 281; January 1, 1997, review of The Voices of Silence, p. 61.

Kliatt, July, 1998, review of The Voices of Silence, p. 14.

Library Media Connection, January, 1990, review of The Stove Haunting, p. 34.

Listener, July 14, 1983, review of The Windsurf Boy, p. 28; March 21, 1985, review of The Anderson Question, p. 25; October 19, 1989, review of From This Day Forward: An Anthology of Marriage, p. 23.

London Review of Books, March 21, 1985, review of The Anderson Question, p. 19.

Magpies, September, 1999, review of Promise You Won't Be Cross, p. 28.

New Statesman, May 2, 1980, Jane Steedman, review of The Year of the Child, p. 681; March 22, 1985, Richard Deveson, review of The Anderson Question, p. 30; September 12, 1986, review of The Stove Haunting, p. 30.

New Yorker, March 3, 1986, review of The Anderson Question, p. 105.

Observer (London, England), June 26, 1983, review of The Windsurf Boy, p. 31; December 9, 1984, review of Differences of Opinion, p. 23; March 17, 1985, review of The Anderson Question, p. 24; July 27, 1986, review of The Stove Haunting, p. 22; March 13, 1988, review of The Fourth of July, p. 43; October 22, 1989, review of From This Day Forward, p. 49; March 7, 1993, review of Lost Footsteps, p. 58; August 10, 2003, review of Devout Sceptics: Conversations on Faith and Doubt, p. 17.

Parents' Choice, December 31, 1997, review of The Voices of Silence, p. 6.

Publishers Weekly, January 27, 1997, review of The Voices of Silence, p. 107; May 4, 1998, review of The Voices of Silence, p. 216.

Reading Teacher, November, 1998, review of The Voices of Silence, p. 277.

School Librarian, February, 1987, review of The Stove Haunting, p. 65; February, 1995, review of I'm Scared!, p. 23; August, 1997, review of Joining the Rainbow, p. 160; autumn, 2000, review of It's Not My Fault!, p. 131.

School Library Journal, May, 1988, Virginia Golodetz, review of The Stove Haunting, p. 99; March, 1997, Marilyn Payne Phillips, review of The Voices of Silence, p. 190.

Spectator, July 9, 1983, review of The Windsurf Boy, p. 25.

Times Educational Supplement, March 13, 1981, review of Liza's Yellow Boat, p. 28; November 14, 1986, review of The Stove Haunting, p. 43; April 13, 1990, Jan Mark, review of A Flower of Jet, p. 24; November 22, 1991, review of The Penguin Book of Marriage, p. 26; May 15, 1992, review of But You Promised!, p. 23; August 15, 1997, review of Joining the Rainbow, p. 23; November 26, 1999, review of It's Not My Fault!, p. 35.

Times Literary Supplement, March 27, 1981, review of Liza's Yellow Boat, p. 343; August 15, 1986, review of The Stove Haunting, p. 898; March 5, 1993, Lesley Chamberlain, review of Los Footsteps, p. 21.

Voice of Youth Advocates, June, 1988, Rosemary Moran, review of The Stove Haunting, p. 96.

Woman's Journal, November, 1997, review of Intimate Letters, p. 16.