Pearce, Philippa (1920-2006), was an English writer of children’s books. She became best known for her fantasy Tom’s Midnight Garden (1958). This book tells about a boy who finds a garden from the 1800’s and a playmate from that era in a relative’s home after he hears a clock strike 13.
Pearce’s adventure story Minnow on the Say (1955) deals with two boys on a treasure hunt. Her realistic tale A Dog So Small (1962) concerns a boy who yearns for a dog. Pearce’s other books include Mrs. Cockle’s Cat (1961), The Squirrel Wife (1971), The Battle of Bubble and Squeak (1978), and The Little Gentleman (2004). She also wrote such short-story collections as What the Neighbours Did and Other Stories (1972), The Shadow Cage and Other Tales of the Supernatural (1977), Who’s Afraid? and Other Strange Stories (1987), and The Rope and Other Stories (2000). A newly illustrated edition of The Squirrel Wife was published in 2007, after her death.
Ann Philippa Pearce was born on Jan. 23, 1920, in Great Shelford, near Cambridge. The village provides the setting for most of her fiction. Pearce died on Dec. 22, 2006.
