Minnow on the Say

Philippa Pearce spent her childhood in Cambridgeshire and was the youngest of four children of a flour-miller. The village, the river, and the countryside in which she lived appear more or less plainly in Minnow on the Say and Tom’s Midnight Garden.  She later went on to study English and History at Cambridge University.  She worked for the BBC as a scriptwriter and producer, and then in publishing as an editor.  She wrote many books including the Modern Classic, Tom’s Midnight Garden, for which she won the Carnegie Medal.  She was also awarded an OBE for services to Children’s Literature.