Author of many books of Fantasy Fiction, mostly for children. These are better than the ones for adults, which she admits are easier going (because adults are not as intelligent!).
Attended Oxford University (St. Anne's), where she studied with JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis. Now lives in Bristol. Has what she calls a "travel jinx" -- whenever she tries to go somewhere, the train breaks down or there's a disaster, etc.
All of her books have recently been reissued in both the UK and the US. Her upcoming novel is Conrad's Fate, which is (hooray!) a Chrestomanci book.
She was given a spanking by Beatrix Potter during the war, wasn't she? -AM
This comes from her autobiography:
"We were up near Sawrey, which was a long way for children to walk; but, if the mothers were to go anywhere, they had to walk and the children had to walk with them. No one had a car. Isobel [her younger sister] and another four-year-old girl were so tired that, when they found a nice gate, they hooked their feet on it and had a restful swing. An old woman with a sack over her shoulders stormed out of the house and hit both of them for swinging on her gate. This was Beatrix Potter. She hated children ... I remember the two of them running back to us, bawling with shock. Fate, I always think, seemed determined to thrust a very odd view of authorship on me."
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