Gillian Cross

 ( Official Website ) 

Later, she received a Bachelor of Arts with first-class honours from Somerville College, Oxford in 1969, and a Master of Arts from the same university in 1972. In 1974, she received a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Sussex.

Cross and her husband had four children.

In 1979, she published her first book, The Runaway. Three years later, she inaugurated The Demon Headmaster series of eight books (1982 to 2019). The same year, she also completed The Dark Behind the Curtain, a horror story illustrated by David Parkins and published by Oxford University Press. "The dark behind the curtain" . Library of Congress Catalog Record. Retrieved 13 July 2012. It was highly commended for the 1982 Carnegie Medal from the CILIP, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject. A Map of Nowhere, published in 1988, was highly commended for the 1988 Carnegie. Two years later, she won the Medal two years later for Wolf, which was also runner-up for the 1991 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.

In early 2014, she became a patron for the Leamington Spa-based charity Cord, after their work in Sudan inspired her latest novel, After Tomorrow.

In the 2024 Dorset Council election, Gillian Cross contested Beacon ward as a Labour Party candidate.

In 1987, The Horn Book Magazine has included two of Cross's books on their list of the best fiction of the year: Roscoe’s Leap (1987) and The Great American Elephant Chase (1993).

• The Runaway (1979)
• The Iron Way (1979)
• Revolt at Ratcliffe's Rags (1979)
• A Whisper of Lace (1981)
• The Dark Behind the Curtain (1982)
• The Demon Headmaster series:
1. The Demon Headmaster (1982)
2. The Prime Minister's Brain (1985)
3. The Revenge of the Demon Headmaster (1994)
4. The Demon Headmaster Strikes Again (1996)
5. The Demon Headmaster Takes Over (1997)
6. Facing the Demon Headmaster (2002)
7. Total Control (2017)
8. Mortal Danger (2019)
• Born of the Sun (1983)
• On the Edge (1984)
• Swimathon! (1986)
• Chartbreak (1986); US title, Chartbreaker
• Roscoe's Leap (1987)
• A Map of Nowhere (1988)
• Rescuing Gloria (1989)
• Wolf (1990)
• The Monster from Underground (2009)
• Twin and Super-Twin (1990)
• The Mintyglo Kid (1991)
• Gobbo the Great (1991)
• Rent-a-Genius (1991)
• Save Our School (1991)
• The Great Elephant Chase (1992); US title, The Great American Elephant Chase
• The Tree House (1993)
• The Furry Maccaloo (1993)
• Beware Olga! (1993)
• What Will Emily Do? (1994)
• New World (1994)
• The Crazy Shoe Shuffle (1995)
• Posh Watson (1995)
• Pictures in the Dark (1996)
• The Roman Beanfeast (1996)
• The Goose Girl (1998)
• Tightrope (1999)
• Down with the Dirty Danes! (2000)
• Calling a Dead Man (2001); US title, Phoning a Dead Man
• The Treasure in the Mud (2001)
• Dark Ground trilogy, or The Lost trilogy:
1. The Dark Ground (2004)
2. The Black Room (2005)
3. The Nightmare Game (2006)
• Sam Sorts It Out (2005)
• Brother Aelred's Feet (2007)
• Where I Belong (2007)
• After Tomorrow (2013)
• Shadow Cat (2015)

• Gillian Cross at Fantastic Fiction
• Author profile and interview
• Gillian Cross answers questions about writing