Sheila Kathleen McCullagh
MBE (3 December 1920 – 7 July 2014) was a British author of children's literature.
Biography
McCullagh was born in Surrey, and during her 'teens the family moved to Woodside House, just outside
Felmersham
Felmersham is a small village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Borough of Bedford in Bedfordshire, England, on the River Great Ouse, about north west of Bedford. As a civil parish, it includes the hamlet of Radwell, Bedfordsh ...
on the road to
Chellington
Chellington is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Carlton and Chellington, in the Bedford district, in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England, situated approximately north-west of Bedford town centre. In 1931 the pa ...
. She wrot
A Survey of the Parish of Felmersham in the year 1939-1940 over 120 pages handwritten on lined paper. It included samples of aggregate taken from the river and pressed flowers and crops collected from the land.
Her work was first published in the 1950s, when she was working as a lecturer at Leeds University.
From 1958 to 1963 she taught at a teacher's college in
London, Ontario
London is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River (Ontario), Thames River and N ...
before taking up writing full time.
She went on to write many children's
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures.
The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...
and educational books, the ''
Puddle Lane'' series being among the most popular and successful.
A television adaptation of the book series starred and featured original music by
Neil Innes
Neil James Innes (; 9 December 1944 – 29 December 2019) was an English writer, comedian and musician. He first came to prominence in the comedy rock group the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later became a frequent collaborator with the Monty Py ...
.
McCullagh spent many years lecturing in Canada and travelled to most corners of the globe, including travel to the Antarctic with
Keith Shackleton and
Peter Scott
Sir Peter Markham Scott (14 September 1909 – 29 August 1989) was a British ornithologist, conservation movement, conservationist, painter, naval officer, broadcaster and Sportsperson, sportsman. The only child of Antarctic explorer Robert Fal ...
.
She was also a devout Anglican.
During her career she wrote over 300 titles. In 2006 she signed a deal with the publisher Mercury Junior to bring her books back into print.
After many years in Cornwall and then retirement in Bath, where she lived with her partner Lois for 20 years, McCullagh moved to a care facility in Wiltshire. Her health had been in decline for some years. She died on 7 July 2014 in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, aged 93.
MCCULLAGH - SHEILA KATHLEEN
/ref>
Books
*'' Dragon Pirate Stories''
*'' Griffin Pirate Stories''
*'' Puddle Lane''
*''The Village with Three Corners'' (or '' One Two Three and Away'')
*''Tim and the Hidden People
Tim and the Hidden People by Sheila K. McCullagh is a 1970s and 80's reading scheme, also known as Flightpath to Reading, originally devised for young children and intended for children with a reading age of eight-and-a-half to nine years. It con ...
'' (series)
*''Hummingbirds''
*''Seahawk''
*'' Buccaneers (series)'' - illustrated by Derek Collard
*''Adventures in Space''
*''Little Dragons''
Television
* Puddle Lane
References
External links
*
The Story People characters from The Village with Three Corners (also known as 1,2,3 and Away!) such as Roger Red-hat, Billy Blue-hat, Johnny and Jennifer Yellow-hat are being used in the I Can Read Without You (ICRWY) Project from The Reading Hut Ltd as 'transition readers' - to bridge the gap between reading 'decodable readers' and 'authentic texts'. A limited series is being published by The Reading Hut Ltd, current copyright holders.
123andAway.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCullagh, Sheila K.
1920 births
2014 deaths
English children's writers
Members_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire