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1[[quoteright:210:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avt_peter_dickinson_7994.jpeg]]
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3Peter Dickinson (1927 – 2015) was a prolific British[[note]]He spent most of his life in England, but was born in Northern Rhodesia in the days when it was part of the British Empire[[/note]] author, who is known both for his crime fiction and for his books for younger readers, of which many are SF.
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5His works include:
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7* The Changes trilogy -- ''The Weathermonger'', ''Heartsease'', and ''The Devil's Children'' -- in which a mysterious supernatural force causes modern England to revert to medieval levels of society and technology,
8* ''The Flight of Dragons'', a mock-scholarly work which claimed that dragons really existed, and flew and breathed fire by means of large amounts of hydrogen generated as a metabolic by-product.
9* "The Kin" - A prehistoric YA series nominated for the Whitbread award. Consists for 4 books named after individual characters, later published as a single volume.
10* "The Blue Hawk" - A novel about a young boy rebelling against a theocratic society, loosely resembling ancient egypt.
11* ''Literature/{{Eva}}'', about a girl who wakes up as a chimpanzee.
12* He has also written a number of adult mystery books, including the James Pibble mysteries and Princess Louise mysteries.
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14The Changes trilogy was adapted loosely for television in 1975, and ''The Flight of Dragons'' even more loosely into [[WesternAnimation/TheFlightOfDragons an animated film]] in 1986.
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16He was awarded an OBE for services to Literature in 2009.
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19!!Peter Dickinson's works provide examples of:
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21* AlternateHistory: ''King and Joker'' and ''Skeleton-in-Waiting'', set in a history where Edward VII's eldest son lived to become king.
22%% * AntiMagic: In ''The Ropemaker''
23%% * CosyCatastrophe: The Changes
24%% * DugTooDeep: ''Annerton Pit''
25* HollywoodPrehistory: ''Bone From a Dry Sea'' is partly set four million years ago in a culture based on the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquatic_ape_hypothesis aquatic ape hypothesis]], and partly MeanwhileInTheFuture following the archaeologist who's digging up its remains.
26%% * OurDragonsAreDifferent: ''The Flight of Dragons''
27* {{Prequel}}: The Changes trilogy was written in reverse order -- first ''The Weathermonger'', set at the end of the Changes, then ''Heartsease'', set in their midst, then ''The Devil's Children'', set at their beginning.
28* SplitAtBirth: ''The Lion Tamer's Daughter''
29* {{Technophobia}}: The trilogy ''The Changes'' has British people suddenly becoming violently technophobic [[spoiler:under what turns out to be a malevolent extra-terrestrial influence]].
30* WhenSheSmiles: In one of the stories in the collection ''Water: Tales of the Elemental Spirits'', the main character is described as one of these ("Her face lit up with kindness and humor and intelligence.") The same phrase, in an non-ironic echo, is used to describe her LoveInterest.

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