The Dark Swallows

Although Helen Griffiths retired from writing junior fiction some 30 years ago, her books are still being read by fans and new readers in various parts of the world, perhaps because the themes are timeless and therefore don't date. She wrote her first "story" with chalk on a school slate when she was five years old; was awarded the Matthew Arnold Memorial Prize (given only every three years to a London school child) when she was 12 and had her first book published at age 17. This was Horse in the Clouds, which immediately became an international success. She was commended by the prestigious Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medal Awards for The Wild Horse of Santander, received the Dutch Silver Pencil Award for Witch Fear (voted the best children's book of the year in Holland), and was given the honorary title of Daughter of Mark Twain for her only adult novel, The Dark Swallows. Most of her books have been published throughout Europe and in the United States, as well as in countries as diverse as Argentina, Iceland and Israel, while Witch Fear (The Mysterious Appearance of Agnes in the United States) still sells in Germany (Hoxentochter). While busily producing a new title every year, Helen also produced three daughters who have since provided her with 13 grandchildren and, more recently, three great-grandchildren. Born in London, brought up in West Yorkshire, and living some 20 years in Spain before finally settling in Bath, a city totally unknown to her before her arrival there, these very different places forged her writing career as well as her character. She has worked as a cowgirl, a secretary, a teacher of English as a foreign language, among other things, as well as writing books and being a wife and mother. In Spain, she was always rescuing street dogs; in Bath, she somehow managed to acquire as many as five horses (looked after by her daughters). One of her best-loved books, and which received many fan letters from young readers, was Just a Dog, a partially true story of how Shadow became a much-loved member of the family and who eventually was brought to Bath because of her astonishing faithfulness and intuition. Her husband's sudden death in a car crash while the children were still young brought Helen back to England, and it was in Bath that she became a Christian, giving her a totally new life. She has written several books for a Christian publisher under her married name-Helen Santos-which have also been published internationally. But, this apart, for some 15 years, she has had a teaching/preaching ministry, and her sermons, if published, would doubtless fill a dozen books. Helen was invited to write an autobiographical sketch which appeared in the series Something About the Author, Vol 5, published by Gale Research Co., Michigan, where a more detailed biography can be found. She now has the company of two little dogs, as well as regular visits from grandchildren. She wrote "The Dark Swallows" while she was very young, basing the main plot on a true story told to her by a next-door neighbour about her mother and brothers during and after the Spanish Civil War. Before republishing many years later, she felt some revision was needed. The story is the same, but she trusts that anyone re-reading it might find it enhanced by the revisions, while new readers might be satisfied.