Nicholas Fisk (author)

Nicholas Fisk is the pseudonym of David Higginbottom (b.1923), a writer of science fiction books, mainly for children. His works include Grinny, "You Remember Me", Space Hostages and Trillions. He also wrote the Starstormers series of novels. His short story "Cutie Pie" is based on an ET with human like feelings.

His first book, The Fast Green Car, was published in 1965.

Both "You Remember Me" and Grinny deal with a normal family in middle England whose lives change when they are visited by aliens. In Grinny, the alien takes the form of an apparently benign elderly relative who can play mind tricks on the adults in the family but not on the children. This Granny-esque figure is eventually caught out by the children's ingenuity (they realise she is no normal human being when she does expect what they describe to her as a "cast-iron conker" to be made of cast iron.)

In "You Remember Me", the same breed of aliens returns to earth and tries again to take over the earth, this time by inhabiting an attractive television presenter who can apply her mind tricks to many thousands as she presents her TV shows. Once again, she is thwarted by the children.