Jill Paton Walsh

Jill Paton Walsh (born Gillian Bliss on 29 April 1937) is an English novelist and children's writer. She was educated at St Michael's Convent, North Finchley and St Anne's College, Oxford. In 1961 she married Antony Paton Walsh; they have one son, and two daughters.

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29 April - 1937 - St Anne's College, Oxford

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Her novels for children span all ages and include; Hengest's tale, The Dolphin Crossing, Fireweed, Goldengrove, The Emperor's Winding Sheet (Whitbread Children's Prizewinner 1974), Babylon, A Parcel of Patterns, Gaffer Samson's Luck (Smarties Prizewinner 1985), Birdy and the Ghosties, Grace, and Thomas and the Tinners.

Related Topics:
Whitbread - Smarties

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Her adult novels include Lapsing about Catholic university students, A School for Lovers, a reworking of the plot of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, and The Serpentine Cave based on a lifeboat disaster in St Ives. Knowledge of Angels, a medieval philosophical novel, was shortlisted for the 1994 Booker Prize. She is the author of 2 detective stories featuring Imogen Quy; The Wyndham Case, and A Piece of Justice. In 1998 she won acclaim for her seamless completion of Dorothy L. Sayers unfinished novel Thrones, Dominations, and she has since completed another Lord Peter Wimsey novel, A Presumption of Death.

Related Topics:
Mozart - Cosi fan tutte - Knowledge of Angels - Booker Prize - Detective stories - Dorothy L. Sayers - Thrones, Dominations - Lord Peter Wimsey

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In 1996 she received the CBE for services to literature, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

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• Biography on Jill Paton Walsh's own website
• Full bibliography on own website