Theresa Tomlinson
, b. 1946
Theresa Tomlinson (b. Crawley, Sussex, 1946) is a British children’s author, primarily of historical fiction. She attended Hull College of Art and Hull College of Education and has three children, as well as grandchildren. She initially came to writing novels through stories told to her children.
Tomlinson is the author of over twenty children’s novels. Most of these are based on history and legend and many feature somewhat didactic stories about powerful women; for example, a trilogy about Maid Marian. The high amount of historical detail woven into her works is one of her distinguishing features as an author. She has also written novels about the early Anglo-Saxons.
Tomlinson cites her favourite children’s novels as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Secret Garden, also praising the work of Rosemary Sutcliff and Alan Garner. Her work receives much critical acclaim for its historical detail and Tomlinson has been shortlisted twice for the Carnegie Medal and the Sheffield Children’s Book Award. US Publishers Weekly, however, complained of “a heavy-handed and somewhat self-righteous social agenda” in her Maid Marian novels.
Sources:
Back cover of book
Profile at wikipedia.org (accessed: March 28, 2019).
Bio prepared by Robin Diver, University of Birmingham, RSD253@student.bham.ac.uk
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