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Edward Blishen (29 April 1920 - 13 December 1996) was an English author. He is perhaps best known for three books: A Cack-Handed War (1972), a story set in the backdrop of the Second World War, The God Beneath the Sea (1970), a collaboration with Leon Garfield that won the Carnegie Medal and "Roaring Boys"(1955),an honest account of teaching in a London secondary modern school in the 1950s and a book still valuable to understand teaching in a "rough" part of a city.

His autobiography Sorry, Dad is supposed to be based on his time at Queen Elizabeth's, Barnet.

He finished the concluding volume of his autobiography, Mind how you go, in 1996, just before his death; it was published posthumously by Constable in 1997.

He was a conscientious objector although he came from a long line of soldier ancestors. His father had served in the First World War, from which he returned wounded, suffering from shell shock and silent about his experiences. 'He wasn't sympathetic to pacifists. He felt that if he had fought a war, then I ought to fight a war as well.' But Edward read some of the now-famous books revealing the horrors of the First World War, and realised 'I can't be somebody who does that to someone else'. Registering as a CO was an uncomfortable experience: 'Everybody was declaring themselves at one counter, and there was this other forlorn counter for you to declare you weren't going to join in. It felt as though you were separating yourself from the rest of the world.' [1]

He was a presenter of the BBC Radio 4 programme A Good Read.

In June 1995 Blishen was awarded an Honorary Degree from the Open University as Doctor of the University.

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Edward Blishen", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0