Philippa Pearce
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Ann Philippa Pearce OBE
FRSL The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the ...
(22 January 1920 – 21 December 2006) was an English author of
children's books A child () is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking countries, the legal definition of ''chi ...
. Best known of them is the time-slip novel '' Tom's Midnight Garden'', which won the 1958 Carnegie Medal from the
Library Association The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP, pronounced ) is a professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge managers in the United Kingdom. It was established in 2002 as a merger of th ...
, as the year's outstanding children's book by a
British subject The term "British subject" has several different meanings depending on the time period. Before 1949, it referred to almost all subjects of the British Empire (including the United Kingdom, Dominions, and colonies, but excluding protectorates ...
. Pearce was a commended runner-up for the Medal a further four times.


Early life

Ann Philippa Pearce was the youngest of four children of a flour miller and corn merchant, Ernest Alexander Pearce, and his wife Gertrude Alice ''née'' Ramsden, who lived at the Mill House by the
River Cam The River Cam () is the main river flowing through Cambridge in eastern England. After leaving Cambridge, it flows north and east before joining the River Great Ouse to the south of Ely, Cambridgeshire, Ely, at Pope's Corner. The total distanc ...
in the village of
Great Shelford Great Shelford is a village located approximately to the south of Cambridge, in Cambridgeshire, in eastern England. In 1850 Great Shelford parish contained bisected by the River Cam. The population in 1841 was 803 people. By 2001, this had g ...
, Cambridgeshire, where she was brought up. She started school only at the age of eight because of illness, then she went on to attend the Perse School for Girls in
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
and win a scholarship to Girton College, Cambridge to read English and History. After gaining her degree, Pearce moved to London, where she found work as a civil servant. Later she wrote and produced schools' radio programmes for the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
, where she remained for 13 years. She was a children's editor at the
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
from 1958 to 1960 and at the
André Deutsch André Deutsch (15 November 1917 – 11 April 2000) was a Hungarian-born British publisher who founded an eponymous publishing company in 1951. Biography Deutsch was born on 15 November 1917 in Budapest, Hungary, the son of a Jewish dentist ...
publishing firm from 1960 to 1967.


Writing career

In 1951 Pearce spent a long period in hospital recovering from
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
. She passed the time there thinking about a
canoe A canoe is a lightweight, narrow watercraft, water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using paddles. In British English, the term ' ...
trip she had taken many years before, which became the inspiration for her first book, a 241-page novel ''
Minnow on the Say ''Minnow on the Say'' is a Television in Canada, Canadian children's adventure television series which aired on CBC Television in 1960. It is based on the 1955 Minnow on the Say (novel), novel of the same title by Philippa Pearce, who later wrote ...
'', published by Oxford in 1955 with illustrations by Edward Ardizzone. The book was a commended runner-up for the annual Carnegie Medal. Like several of her subsequent books, it was inspired by the area where she had grown up: the villages of Great and Little Shelford became Great and Little Barley. Cambridge became Castleford in the book (nothing to do with the real town of the same name in West Yorkshire) and lost its university; the River Cam became the River Say. ''Minnow'' was published in the US as ''The Minnow Leads to Treasure'' (1958). It was adapted for television in Canada as a 1960 TV series with the original title, and for British television in 1972 as ''Treasure over the Water''. Pearce's second book was '' Tom's Midnight Garden'', published by Oxford in 1958. Its "midnight garden" was based directly on the garden of the Mill House where Pearce was raised. Pearce's advance for it was £1,000, which she thought "colossal". The novel has become one of the classic time-slip stories for children, initiated by
Alison Uttley Alison Jane Uttley ( Taylor; 17 December 1884 – 7 May 1976) was an English writer of over 100 books. She is best known for a children's series about Little Grey Rabbit and Sam Pig. She is also remembered for a pioneering time slip novel for ch ...
with ''A Traveller in Time'' in 1939. ''Tom's Midnight Garden'' inspired a film, a stage play and three TV series. It won the annual Carnegie Medal and for the 70th anniversary celebration in 2007, a panel named it one of the top ten Medal-winning works, which composed the ballot for a public election of the nation's favourite, in which ''Tom's Midnight Garden'' finished second in the vote, between two books that were about 40 years younger. Pearce wrote over thirty books, including ''A Dog So Small'' (1962), '' The Squirrel Wife'' (1971), ''The Battle of
Bubble and Squeak Bubble and squeak is an English dish made from cooked potatoes and cabbage, mixed together and fried. The food writer Howard Hillman classes it as one of the "great peasant dishes of the world".Hillman, pp. 62–63 The dish has been known sinc ...
'' (1978) and ''The Way To Sattin Shore'' (1983). ''The Shadow Cage and other tales of the supernatural'' (1977), ''Bubble and Squeak'', and ''Sattin Shore'' were the later three of her four Carnegie Medal runners-up. ''The Battle of Bubble and Squeak'' inspired a two-part television adaptation in
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
's ''Talk, Write and Read'' series of educational programming. Although not a prolific writer of full-length books, Pearce continued to work over subsequent years, as well as speaking at conferences, editing anthologies and writing short stories. She attended a 2002 reception for children's authors at Number 10 Downing Street, the home of the Prime Minister. In 2004 Pearce published her first new full-length book for two decades, ''The Little Gentleman''. One further children's novel was published posthumously in 2008: ''A Finder's Magic''.


Personal life

Pearce married Martin Christie in 1962. They had one daughter, who became a children's author herself, as Sally Christie. Martin Christie, who had never wholly recovered from being a Japanese prisoner of war, died in 1964. From 1973 until her death from complications of a stroke in 2006, Philippa Pearce lived once again in Great Shelford, down the lane where she was raised.


Legacy

Every September from 2008, the Philippa Pearce Lecture at Homerton College, Cambridge celebrates "excellence in writing for children and to emphasize its continuing vital importance." The lecturers are children's literature authors, scholars or critics, and most of the lectures are published online."The Philippa Pearce Memorial Lecture: celebrating excellence in children's literature"
Retrieved 18 November 2012.


Selected books

*''
Minnow on the Say ''Minnow on the Say'' is a Television in Canada, Canadian children's adventure television series which aired on CBC Television in 1960. It is based on the 1955 Minnow on the Say (novel), novel of the same title by Philippa Pearce, who later wrote ...
'', illustrated by Edward Ardizzone (1955); US title, ''The Minnow Leads to Treasure'' *'' Tom's Midnight Garden'', illustrated by Susan Einzig (1958) *''A Dog So Small'' (1962) *''The Children of Charlecote'' (1968) *'' The Squirrel Wife'', illustrated by Derek Collard (1971) *''What the Neighbours Did and Other Stories'', illustrated by Faith Jaques, (1972) *''The Shadow Cage and Other Tales of the Supernatural'' (1977) *''The Battle of Bubble and Squeak'' (1978) *''The Way to Sattin Shore'' (1983) *''The Little Gentleman'', illustrated by Patrick Benson (2004); US ed., illustrated by Tom Pohrt *''A Finder's Magic'' (2008)


Notes


References


External links

*
Philippa Pearce
at
Walker Books Walker Books is a British publisher of children's books, founded in 1978 by Sebastian Walker, Amelia Edwards, and Wendy Boase. In 1991, the success of Walker Books' ''Where's Wally?'' series enabled the company to expand into the American ma ...
*
"Philippa Pearce"
(Fellows Remembered), The Royal Society of Literature *Philippa Pearce profile o
Great Shelford website
where she was born and bred {{DEFAULTSORT:Pearce, Philippa 1920 births 2006 deaths English children's writers Carnegie Medal in Literature winners Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge People educated at the Perse School for Girls People from Great Shelford Writers from Cambridgeshire Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Officers of the Order of the British Empire English women novelists