Penelope Farmer

Last updated

Penelope Jane Farmer (born 1939) is an English fiction writer well known for children's fantasy novels. Her best-known novel is Charlotte Sometimes (1969), a boarding-school story that features a multiple time slip.

Contents

Life

Farmer was born a fraternal twin in Westerham, Kent, on 14 June 1939, as the third child of Hugh Robert MacDonald (died 26 May 2004) and Penelope Boothby Farmer. [1] Her parents and hospital staff were unaware of her existence until some 25 minutes after the birth of her twin sister Judith. [2] Throughout Farmer's life, twinship has been a defining element in her understanding of her identity. The importance of Farmer's relationship with her twin sister Judith was reflected in her books, having published Two, or: The Book of Twins and Doubles in 1996, and Sisters: An Anthology in 1999. The twins have an older brother, Tim, and a younger sister, Sally. [3]

After attending a boarding school, she read history at St Anne's College, Oxford and did postgraduate work at Bedford College, University of London. [4]

She visited South Africa in 1994, talking with people about their views on the election. She later wrote an article about this, published in the Index on Censorship. [5]

In 2000, Farmer published an article about the challenges facing the Hong Kong Chinese community in the UK. [6]

According to Penelope Farmer's personal blog site, she was in 2012 living on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. She there described herself as "a writer – published for many years, now struggling", and listed "her grandchildren" among those she loved and missed. Other relations were mentioned: the departure of her daughter and a granddaughter (23 April 2004). The 22 April 2010 entry states that her son was among those staying with her, with his daughters aged eight and twelve. [7] [ better source needed ]

Writing career

Farmer's first publication was The China People, a collection of literary fairy tales for young people, in 1960. [1] One story written for this collection was judged too long to include. This was re-written as the first chapter of her first novel for children, The Summer Birds . In 1963, this received a Carnegie Medal commendation and was cited as an American Library Association Notable Book. [3] The Summer Birds was soon followed by its sequels, Emma in Winter (1966) and Charlotte Sometimes (1969), and by A Castle of Bone (1972), Year King (1977), Thicker than Water (1989), Penelope: A Novel (1993), and Granny and Me (1998).

Farmer stated that she, while writing Emma in Winter, did not realize that identity was such a predominant theme in the novel until she encountered Margery Fisher's comments on the book. She had a similar realization, this time on her own, while writing Charlotte Sometimes. [8]

Works

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kate Douglas Wiggin</span> American writer

Kate Douglas Wiggin was an American educator, author and composer. She wrote children's stories, most notably the classic children's novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and composed collections of children's songs. She started the first free kindergarten in San Francisco in 1878. With her sister during the 1880s, she also established a training school for kindergarten teachers. Kate Wiggin devoted her adult life to the welfare of children in an era when children were commonly thought of as cheap labor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlotte Mew</span> English poet (1869–1928)

Charlotte Mary Mew was an English poet whose work spans the eras of Victorian poetry and Modernism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angela Carter</span> English novelist

Angela Olive Pearce, who published under the name Angela Carter, was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picaresque works. She is best known for her book The Bloody Chamber, which was published in 1979. In 2008, The Times ranked Carter tenth in their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". In 2012, Nights at the Circus was selected as the best ever winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

David Higginbottom, pen name Nicholas Fisk, was a British writer of science fiction books, mainly for children. His works include Grinny, You Remember Me, Space Hostages, and Trillions. He also wrote the Starstormers series of novels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penelope Lively</span> British novelist (born 1933)

Dame Penelope Margaret Lively is a British writer of fiction for both children and adults. Lively has won both the Booker Prize and the Carnegie Medal for British children's books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emma Donoghue</span> Irish novelist, playwright, short-story writer and historian

Emma Donoghue is an Irish-Canadian playwright, literary historian, novelist, and screenwriter. Her 2010 novel Room was a finalist for the Booker Prize and an international best-seller. Donoghue's 1995 novel Hood won the Stonewall Book Award and Slammerkin (2000) won the Ferro-Grumley Award for Lesbian Fiction. She is a 2011 recipient of the Alex Awards. Room was adapted by Donoghue into a film of the same name. For this, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Edward Irving Wortis, better known by the pen name Avi, is an American author of young adult and children's literature. He is a winner of the Newbery Medal and twice one of the runners-up.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kate O'Brien (novelist)</span> Irish novelist, playwright and activist

Kate O'Brien was an Irish novelist and playwright.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Noel Streatfeild</span>

Mary Noel Streatfeild OBE was an English author, best known for children's books including the "Shoes" books, which were not a series. Random House, the U.S. publisher of the 1936 novel Ballet Shoes (1936), published some of Streatfeild's subsequent children's books using the word "Shoes" in their titles, to capitalize on the popularity of Ballet Shoes; thus Circus Shoes, Party Shoes, Skating Shoes and many more. She won the third annual Carnegie Medal for Circus Shoes. She was a member of the historic Streatfeild family.

<i>A Murder Is Announced</i> 1950 novel by Agatha Christie

A Murder Is Announced is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in June 1950 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in the same month. The UK edition sold for eight shillings and sixpence (8/6) and the US edition at $2.50.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eleanor Cameron</span> Canadian born childrens author and critic

Eleanor Frances (Butler) Cameron was a children's author and critic. She published 20 books in her lifetime, including The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet (1954) and its sequels, a collection of critical essays called The Green and Burning Tree (1969), and The Court of the Stone Children (1973), which won the U.S. National Book Award in category Children's Books.

Linda Grant is an English novelist and journalist.

Emma Christina Tennant FRSL was an English novelist and editor of Scottish extraction, known for a post-modern approach to her fiction, often imbued with fantasy or magic. Several of her novels give a feminist or dreamlike twist to classic stories, such as Two Women of London: The Strange Case of Ms Jekyll and Mrs Hyde. She also published under the name Catherine Aydy.

<i>Charlotte Sometimes</i> (novel) Novel by Penelope Farmer, 1969

Charlotte Sometimes is a children's novel by the English writer Penelope Farmer, published in 1969 in Britain and the United States. It is the third and best-known of three books featuring the Makepeace sisters, Charlotte and Emma, sometimes known as the Aviary Hall books. The story follows a girl starting at boarding school who finds one morning she has traveled mysteriously back more than 40 years and is known as Clare. Charlotte and Clare change places each night, alternating between 1918 and Charlotte's time; although Charlotte and Clare never meet, they communicate through diary notes in an exercise book. The story is written from Charlotte's point of view: the narrative never follows Clare. Charlotte becomes trapped in Clare's time, struggling to maintain her identity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlotte Sometimes (song)</span> 1981 single by The Cure

"Charlotte Sometimes" is a song by English rock band the Cure, recorded at producer Mike Hedges' Playground Studios and released as a non-album single on 9 October 1981 by Polydor Records, following the band's third studio album Faith. The titles and lyrics to both sides were based on the book Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer.

<i>The Watsons</i> Unfinished novel by Jane Austen

The Watsons is an abandoned novel by Jane Austen, probably begun about 1803. There have been a number of arguments advanced as to why she did not complete it, and other authors have since attempted the task. A continuation by Austen's niece was published in 1850. The manuscript fragment itself was published in 1871. Further completions and adaptations of the story have continued to the present day.

Hilary Bailey was a British writer, critic and editor.

<i>Emma in Winter</i>

Emma in Winter is a children's novel by British writer Penelope Farmer, published in 1966 by Chatto & Windus in the UK, and by Harcourt in the USA. It is the second of three books featuring the Makepeace sisters, Charlotte and Emma, These three books are sometimes known as the Aviary Hall books.

<i>The Summer Birds</i>

The Summer Birds is a children's novel by British writer Penelope Farmer, published in 1962 by Chatto & Windus, and receiving a Carnegie Medal commendation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constance Savery</span>

Constance Winifred Savery was a British writer of fifty novels and children's books, as well as many short stories and articles. She was selected for the initial issue of the long-running series entitled The Junior Book of Authors (1951–2008) and for the first, 1971, volume of Anne Commire's Something About the Author, which reached volume 320 in 2018. Savery's World War II novel, Enemy Brothers, received praise and remains in print. In 1980, at age eighty-two, she completed a Charlotte Brontë two-chapter fragment, which was published as "Emma by Charlotte Brontë and Another Lady". The book was translated into Dutch, Spanish, and Russian.

References

  1. 1 2 Dictionary of Literary Biography : Penelope (Jane) Farmer. www.bookrags.com. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
  2. Farmer, Penelope (1996). Two, or The Book of Twins & Doubles . London: Virago Press. p.  11. ISBN   9781853817052.
  3. 1 2 Something About the Author. Something About the Author Series. Vol. 105. Gale. 1999. p.  64. ISBN   0787621269.
  4. Anita Silvey, ed: Children's books and their creators (New York, Houghton Mifflin, 1995), p. 238.
  5. Farmer, Penelope (1994). 'We just have to wait and see'. Index on Censorship (3), 143-150.
  6. Farmer, Penelope (2000). 'Talking Chinese'. Index on Censorship (3), 178-183.
  7. "Blogger: User Profile: granny p". www.blogger.com. Retrieved 18 February 2011.
  8. Penelope, Fisher (1976). Geoff Fox; Graham Hammond; Terry Jones; Frederic Smith; Kenneth Sterck (eds.). Writers, Critics, and Children. New York: Agathon Press. p. 60. ISBN   0-87586-054-0.
  9. Vulpes Libris Retrieved 29 January 2017.