Philippa Pearce was an English author of children's books. Her most famous work is the time slip fantasy novel Tom's Midnight Garden, which won the 1958 Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's outstanding children's book by a British subject. Pearce was four times a commended runner up for the Medal.
The peculiar relationship between the old and the very young is a constant theme in Philippa's writing and when, late in life, she had the unexpected delight of two small grandsons, it gave her a renewed burst of creative energy. She called being a grandmother a privilege, a rare, almost inexplicable pleasure not just fun but something different, more. Philippa Pearce died in December 2006.
