The Hen

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Jeremy Strong was born in New Eltham in London on 18 November 1949. His parents were Charles Strong, a pharmacist, and Una, a primary school teacher. He had two brothers, Michael and Aidan, and a sister, Jenny. He attended Wyborne Primary School, east London, Haberdashers Aske's Boys' School and the University of York where he first studied music before changing courses to English. After graduating, he became a primary school teacher whilst still pursuing his ambition to become a writer. His first teaching position was at Sevenoaks, Kent in 1976. He became deputy head teacher at Birchwood primary and then headteacher of Culverstone Green primary. Strong published his first book Smith's Tail, a picture story for young children in 1978. Strong left teaching in 1991 and wrote full-time for the rest of his life.

In Their Own Story

Jeremy Strong won the Children's Book Award (UK) (previously the Red House Children's Book Award) in 1997 for The Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog. He won the Sheffield Children's Book Award for Short Novel in 1998 for Pirate Pandemonium and then in 2001 for Living with Vampires. His story There's A Viking In My Bed was made into a BBC children's TV series. Strong's final novel, Fox Goes North was published posthumously by Scholastic in October 2024. The story tells of a band of animal companions who travel northwards in a topsy-turvey caravan on their quest to see the Northern Lights. For the elderly fox, it will be her final journey. In an interview with Nikki Gamble, Strong said that as he was writing the story, he became aware that he was writing the story of his own journey too.

Reader's Guide

Strong married his first wife Susan Noot, a teacher, in 1973 and they had two children together, Daniel and Jessica. They divorced and in 2006 Strong met Gillian Dean and they married two years later. Strong has two stepdaughters, from his second marriage, Rosa and Isabel. He lived in Bradford-on-Avon, with his wife and their two cats and four hens. Strong died from bone cancer on 4 August 2024. He was 74 years old.

Did You Know?

• Jeremy Strong wrote and published over 100 novels for children and young adults.
• He won the Children's Book Award (UK) in 1997 for The Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog.
• His story There's A Viking In My Bed was made into a BBC children's TV series.
• Strong's final novel, Fox Goes North, was published posthumously by Scholastic in October 2024.
• He died from bone cancer on 4 August 2024 at the age of 74.