Helen Dunmore
Helen Dunmore FRSL (12 December 1952 – 5 June 2017) was a British poet, novelist, and short story and children's writer. Her best known works include the novels Zennor in Darkness, A Spell of Winter and The Siege, and her last book of poetry Inside the Wave. She won the inaugural Orange Prize for Fiction, the National Poetry Competition, and posthumously the Costa Book Award.
Helen Dunmore

Phil · Flickr: A welcome guest · CC BY 2.0
- Born
- 1952. · Beverley.
- Died
- 2017. · Bristol.
- Nationality
- United Kingdom.
- Occupation
- poet, writer and novelist.
- Fields
- poetry, children's literature and novel.
- Education
- University of York, Nottingham Girls' High School and Sutton High School.
- Known for
- Zennor in Darkness.
- Honours
- Women's Prize for Fiction, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize.
- Languages
- English.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Helen Dunmore FRSL (12 December 1952 – 5 June 2017) was a British poet, novelist, and short story and children's writer. Her best known works include the novels Zennor in Darkness, A Spell of Winter and The Siege, and her last book of poetry Inside the Wave. She won the inaugural Orange Prize for Fiction, the National Poetry Competition, and posthumously the Costa Book Award.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
No house-authored Note is published until its assertions and sources pass the VALÉORINE evidence contract. The documentary article remains available in full while that enrichment is being consolidated.
Documentary enrichment in progress · no unsupported statement published
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Helen Dunmore. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Evidence Panel
not yet certified
- Identity
- resolved
- Independent source families
- 0
- Admitted assertions
- 0
- Open conflicts
- 0
Authority files
wikidata · Q462266 · wikipedia · Helen Dunmore
In this article
Biography
Biography
Helen Dunmore studied at University of York, Nottingham Girls' High School and Sutton High School. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is poetry, children's literature and novel. Works named in the authority record are Zennor in Darkness. Distinctions recorded are Women's Prize for Fiction, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize.
Dunmore was born in Beverley, Yorkshire, in 1952, the second of four children of Betty (née Smith) and Maurice Dunmore. She attended Sutton High School, London and Nottingham Girls' High School, then direct grant grammar schools. She studied English at the University of York, and lived in Finland for two years (1973–75) and worked as a teacher. She lived after that in Bristol. Dunmore was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL). Some of Dunmore's children's books are included in reading schemes for use in schools. In March 2017, she published her last novel, Birdcage Walk, as well as an article about mortality for The Guardian written after she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She died on 5 June 2017. Her final poetry collection Inside the Wave, published in April 2017 shortly before her death, posthumously won the Poetry and overall Book of the Year awards in the 2017 Costa Book Awards.
Personal life
Personal life
Dunmore's husband Frank Charnley, whom she married in 1980, is a lawyer. Dunmore had a son, daughter and stepson, and three grandchildren at the time of her death.
Novels
Novels
Zennor in Darkness (1993, McKitterick Prize 1994) Burning Bright (1994) A Spell of Winter (1995, Orange Prize 1996) Talking to the Dead (1996) Your Blue-Eyed Boy (1998) With your Crooked Heart (1999) The Siege (2001, shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel of the Year Award and the Orange Prize 2002) Mourning Ruby (2003) House of Orphans (2006) Counting the Stars (2008) The Betrayal (2010, longlisted for the Man Booker prize) The Greatcoat (2012) (ISBN 978-0-09-956493-5) The Lie (2014) Exposure (2016) (ISBN 978-0-09-195394-2) An "Exclusive edition for independent bookshops" (ISBN 978-1-78633-000-0) includes a 14-page essay "On Reading" Birdcage Walk (2017, longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize 2018)
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1952
Helen Dunmore born at Beverley.
2017
Helen Dunmore died at Bristol.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Beverley.
Birth place
Bristol.
Death place
Young adult books
Young adult books
Zillah and Me! The Lilac Tree (first published as Zillah and Me) (2004) The Seal Cove (first published as The Zillah Rebellion) (2004) The Silver Bead (2004) The Ingo Chronicles Ingo (2005) The Tide Knot (2006) The Deep (2007) The Crossing of Ingo (2008) Stormswept (2012)
Children's books
Children's books
Going to Egypt (1992) In the Money (1995) Go Fox (1996) Fatal Error (1996) Amina's Blanket (1996) Allie's Apples (1997) Bestiary (1997) Clyde's Leopard (1998) Great-Grandma's Dancing Dress (1998) Brother Brother, Sister Sister (1999) Allie's Rabbit (1999) Allie's Away (2000) Aliens Don't Eat Bacon Sandwiches (2000) The Ugly Duckling (2001) Tara's Tree House (2003) The Ferry Birds (2010) The Islanders (2011) The Lonely Sea Dragon (2013)
Short story collections
Short story collections
Love of Fat Men (1997) Ice Cream (2000) Rose, 1944 (2005) Girl, Balancing and Other Stories (2018)
Poetry collections
Poetry collections
The Apple Fall (Bloodaxe Books, 1983) The Sea Skater (Bloodaxe Books, 1986) The Raw Garden (Bloodaxe Books, 1988) Short Days, Long Nights: New & Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 1991) Recovering a Body (Bloodaxe Books, 1994) Secrets (The Bodley Head, 1994) [children's poetry title] Bestiary (Bloodaxe Books, 1997) Out of the Blue: Poems 1975–2001 (Bloodaxe Books, 2001) Snollygoster and Other Poems (Scholastic Press, 2001) [children's poetry title] Glad of these times (Bloodaxe Books, 2007) The Malarkey (Bloodaxe Books, 2012) Inside the Wave (Bloodaxe Books, 2017)
Awards and honours
1987: Poetry Book Society Choice, The Raw Garden 1994: McKitterick Prize, Zennor in Darkness 1996: Orange Prize (inaugural winner), A Spell of Winter 1990: Cardiff International Poetry Prize 1997: T. S. Eliot Prize, shortlist, Bestiary 2010: Man Booker Prize, longlist, The Betrayal 2010: National Poetry Competition winner, "The Malarkey" 2015: Walter Scott Prize, shortlist, The Lie 2017 (posthumously): Costa Book Awards Poetry and Book of the Year Awards, Inside the Wave
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.British Council Literature. Helen Dunmore – Literature.
- 2.Cain, Sian. Helen Dunmore wins Costa book of the year for Inside the Wave. The Guardian. 30 January 2018.
- 3.Sutton High School Magazine, 1965 and 1967. (Poems published in 1965 and 1967, and prize awarded for History and English listed in 1967 magazine.)
- 4.News And Publicity Bloodaxe Books. www.bloodaxebooks.com.
- 5.Kellaway, Kate. Helen Dunmore obituary. The Guardian. 5 June 2017.
- 6.Helen Dunmore: facing mortality and what we leave behind. The Guardian. 4 March 2017. 0261-3077.
- 7.Cain, Sian. Poet and author Helen Dunmore dies aged 64. The Guardian. 5 June 2017.
- 8.BBC News. Helen Dunmore, poet and novelist, dies aged 64. 6 June 2017.
- 9.Foyles. Death of Novelist Helen Dunmore Announced. 5 June 2017.
- 10.Costa Book Awards. Costa Poetry Award 2017.
- 11.Cain, Sian. Helen Dunmore wins posthumous Costa award for collection Inside the Wave. The Guardian. 2 January 2018.
- 12.Macdonald, Marianne. A writer's life: Helen Dunmore. The Daily Telegraph. 21 September 2003.
- 13.The Poetry Society. Helen Dunmore 1952–2017.
- 14.Society of Authors. Past winners of the McKitterick Prize.
- 15.McCrum, Robert. The Siege is a novel for now. The Guardian. 10 June 2001.
- 16.Woodman, Sue. Orange is a female color. The Nation. 1 July 1996.
- 17.Dowson, Jane. A History of Twentieth-Century British Women's Poetry. Cambridge University Press. xx. 2005. 978-0-521-81946-6.
- 18.Helen Dunmore – Orange Prize winner – Poetry.
- 19.The Man Booker Prize 2010. 29 April 2010.
- 20.Helen Dunmore Bloodaxe author page.
- 21.The Poetry Society. National Poetry Competition: History.
- 22.Walter Scott Prize. 2015 Shortlist announced. 24 March 2015.
- 23.Showalter, Elaine. Dreams of a dead daughter. The Guardian. 27 September 2003.
- 24.Dunmore, Helen. Exposure. Hutchnson. 395–410. 2016. 978-1-78633-000-0.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
38,661 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Helen BlackburnAuthor
- Helen Churchill CandeeAuthor
- Helen ConklingAuthor
- Helen Diana BridgemanAuthor
- Helen FieldingAuthor
- Helen Fogwill PorterAuthor
- Helen GarnerAuthor
- Helen Gurley BrownAuthor
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Helen Dunmore?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.