Margaret Storey (children's writer)

Elizabeth Margaret Storey (27 June 1926 – 28 September 2022) was a British author of books for children and young adults published by Faber.

Biography

Elizabeth Margaret Storey was born on 26 June 1926.[1] She attended Girton College in Cambridge in 1948 to gain a BA Honours degree in English, and thereafter worked as an English teacher.[2]

Neil Gaiman has cited her as an influence: "Margaret Storey is more or less out of print these days, alas. I loved her when I was about seven or eight, and am looking forward to finding out how much of her stuff has wound up in mine."[3]

Her work included a fantasy series based on the adventures of two children, Timothy and Ellen, and a witch named Melinda Farbright: "the real thing – strange and magical, and above all, dangerous".[3]

  • Timothy and Two Witches (1966) - Illustrated by Charles W. Stewart[4]
  • The Stone Wizard aka "The Stone Sorcerer" (1967) - Illustrated by Charles W. Stewart
  • The Dragon's Sister and Timothy Travels (1967) - Illustrated by Charles W. Stewart
  • A Quarrel of Witches (1970 - Illustrated by Doreen Roberts[5]
  • The Sleeping Witch (1971) - Illustrated by Janina Ede[6]
  • A War of Wizards (1976) - Illustrated by Janina Ede
  • The Double Wizard (1979) - Illustrated by June Jackson

She also wrote:

  • Pauline (1965)
  • Wrong Gear (1973)
  • Keep Running (1974)
  • Kate And The Family Tree (1965) - illustrated by Shirley Hughes[citation needed]
  • The Smallest Doll (1966) - illustrated by Shirley Hughes
  • The Smallest Bridesmaid (1966) - illustrated by Shirley Hughes
  • The Mollyday Holiday (1971) - Illustrated by Janina Ede

Pauline, about an orphan forced to live with uncomprehending relatives, has been described as "an astonishingly mature novel for a new writer".[7]

She should not be confused with the mystery writer Margaret Storey, who has written a number of books, sometimes under the pseudonym Elizabeth Eyre with the author Jill Staynes.

Storey died on 28 September 2022, at the age of 96.[8]

References

  1. ^ Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature. Wildside Press, LLC. September 2010. p. 499. Retrieved 24 December 2023.
  2. ^ Kirkpatrick, D. L. (10 November 1978). Twentieth-century Children's Writers. Macmillan International Higher Education. ISBN 978-1-349-03648-6.
  3. ^ a b Neil Gaiman's Journal
  4. ^ "Charles W. Stewart". The Independent. 17 October 2001. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  5. ^ Art, Manchester School of. "Tigers, caterpillars and other wild things (Monday 16 June — Friday 5 September 2014)". Manchester School of Art. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  6. ^ Kirkpatrick, D. L. (10 November 1978). Twentieth-century Children's Writers. Macmillan International Higher Education. ISBN 978-1-349-03648-6.
  7. ^ Marcus Crouch, The Nesbit Tradition: The Children's Novel in England, 1945-1970, Ernest Benn, 1972, p 212.
  8. ^ "MS Elizabeth Margaret Storey". England and Wales, Death Index, 1989–2022. Retrieved 24 December 2023.


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