Nicholas Stuart Gray (born Phyllis Loriot Hatch; 23 October 1912 – 17 March 1981) was a British actor and playwright perhaps best known for his work in children's theatre in England.
[1] Neil Gaiman has written that Gray "is one of those authors I loved as a boy who holds up even better on rereading as an adult".
[2] Many other modern fantasy authors, such as Cecilia Dart-Thornton,[3] Kate Forsyth,[4] Cassandra Golds,[5] Sophie Masson,[6] and Garth Nix,[7] cite Gray's work as something they enjoyed as children.
Gray often produced adaptations or continuations of traditional fairy tales and fantasy works, as in his Further Adventures of Puss in Boots.
Gray maintained a long-term collaborative relationship with set designer and illustrator Joan Jefferson Farjeon, who supplied the costume and scenic designs for many of the theatrical productions of his plays, as well as the illustrations for most of his printed plays and for the novel version of The Seventh Swan.