Philip Turner aka Stephen Chance

I have been busy cataloguing some new stock, and thought I would mention this author, having just put quite a few of his books up for sale.

Philip Turner , who also wrote under then pen name Stephen Chance, is probably best known for his Darnley Mills Adventures, although he did write other titles. Under his pen name he wrote another well known series - his Septimus Books, that featured the ex-CID Chief Inspector, turned village parson, Reverend Septimus Treloar.

Philip Turner (1925 - 2006), was born in Canada, but only lived there for a year, and had his roots firmly in East Anglia. Both of his parents were born in Peterborough (UK), and he spent much of his childhood exploring remote Fenland villages whilst staying with his grandparents. He originally trained as a mechanical engineer, but after the war abandoned this, to work in Prisons and in hospital administration. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1951, and served in a number of parishes.

He wrote his first children's novel in 1964, Colonel Sheperton's Clock, which was to be the first of a number of books in his series of DarnleyMills' Adventures. In 1971, as Stephen Chance, he launched another series of books, beginning with Septimus and the Danedyke Mystery - which was adapted for television in 1979.

Philip Turner won the Carnegie Medal for children's literature for his second novel the Grange at High Force in 1966.