Barbara Mary Willard (12 March 1909 – 18 February 1994) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

novelist best known for

children's A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person young ...

historical fiction. Her "Mantlemass Chronicles" is a

family saga The family saga is a genre of literature which chronicles the lives and doings of a family or a number of related or interconnected families over a period of time. In novels (or sometimes sequences of novels) with a serious intent, this is often ...

set in 15th to 17th-century England. For one chronicle, ''The Iron Lily'' (1973), she won the annual

Guardian Children's Fiction Prize The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize or Guardian Award was a literary award that annual recognised one fiction book written for children or young adults (at least age eight) and published in the United Kingdom. It was conferred upon the author ...

, a once-in-a-lifetime book award judged by panel of British children's writers.

Life

Willard was born in Brighton, Sussex in 1909, the daughter of the

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

an actor

Edmund Willard Edmund Willard (19 December 1884 – 6 October 1956) was a British actor of the 1930s and 1940s. Born in Brighton, Sussex in 1884, the nephew of Victorian era actor Edward Smith Willard, in 1920 Willard appeared in the plays of William Shak ...

and Mabel Theresa Tebbs. She was also the great-niece of

Victorian-era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardi ...

actor

Edward Smith Willard Edward Smith Willard (9 January 1853 – 9 November 1915) was an English actor. He was born at Brighton''Who's Who on the Stage: the dramatic reference book and ...'', Volume 1 edited by Walter Browne, Frederick Arnold Austin; 1906 pg. 227 and ...

. The young Willard was educated at a

convent A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglic ...

school in

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

. Because of her family connections, Willard originally went on the stage as an actress and also worked as a playreader, but she was unsuccessful and abandoned acting in her early twenties. She wrote numerous books for adults before she turned to

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

. Folly Magazine obituary by Lance Salway. Very little about the author was written during her lifetime, because of her private nature. She died at a nursing home in

Wivelsfield Wivelsfield village and the larger adjacent village of Wivelsfield Green are the core of the civil parish of Wivelsfield in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. The villages are north of the city of Brighton and Hove. Wivelsfield paris ...

Green, East Sussex, on 18 February 1994.

Writing career

''The Grove of Green Holly'' (1967), which was a story about a group of 17th century travelling players who were hiding in a forest in Sussex from

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three K ...

's soldiers, spawned her most famous work, the Mantlemass series (1970–1981) including her Guardian Prize-winning book. Some other books were ''Hetty'' (1956), ''Storm from the West'' (1963), ''Three and One to Carry'' (1964), and ''Charity at Home'' (1965). One of her last books, ''The Forest - Ashdown in East Sussex'', published by Sweethaws Press in 1989, gives a detailed account of

Ashdown Forest Ashdown Forest is an ancient area of open heathland occupying the highest sandy ridge-top of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is situated some south of London in the county of East Sussex, England. Rising to an elevation o ...

. In the introduction to the book,

Christopher Robin Milne Christopher Robin Milne (21 August 1920 – 20 April 1996) was an English author and bookseller and the only child of author A. A. Milne. As a child, he was the basis of the character Christopher Robin in his father's Winnie-the-Pooh stories a ...

notes that Willard had moved from her home on the Sussex Downs to the edge of Ashdown Forest in 1956 and that her new surroundings had provided the inspiration and setting for ten of her children's historical novels (eight in the ''Mantlemass'' series and two others). It is evident by her own account in her book that she actively involved herself in the affairs of the forest. She was a representative of the forest Commoners elected to the forest's Board of Conservators in 1975, and she remained in that capacity for ten years. She tells how she was later heavily involved in the fundraising campaign which enabled East Sussex County Council to purchase the forest in 1988, enabling it to remain as a place of beauty and tranquility open to the public.

List of selected works

Children's fiction

;Mantlemass Chronicles # ''The Miller's Boy'', 1976 . # ''The Lark and the Laurel'', 1970 # ''The Sprig of Broom'', 1971 # ''A Cold Wind Blowing'', 1972 # ''The Eldest Son'', 1977 # ''The Iron Lily'', 1973 # ''A Flight of Swans'', 1980 # ''Harrow and Harvest'', 1974 # ''The Keys of Mantlemass'', 1981 (a series of short stories that form bridges between the full-length books)

Adult fiction

* ''Love in Ambush'', 1930 (with Elizabeth Helen Devas) * ''Ballerina'', 1932 * ''As Far as in me Lies'', 1936 * ''The Dogs Do Bark'', 1948 * ''Portrait of Philip'', 1950 * ''Celia Scarfe'', 1951 ;Other children's fiction * ''Hetty'', 1956 * ''Snail and the Pennithornes'', 1957 * ''The Penny Pony'', 1961 * ''Duck on a Pond'', 1962 * ''Storm from the West'', 1963 * ''The Battle of Wednesday Week'', 1963 * ''Three and One to Carry'', 1964 * ''A Dog and a Half'', 1964 * ''Charity at Home'', 1965 * ''Surprise Island'', 1966 * '' The Richleighs of Tantamount'', 1966 * ''The Grove of Green Holly'', 1967 * ''The Gardener's Grandchildren'', 1978 * ''Spell Me A Witch'', 1979 * ''Summer Season'', 1981

References

Other sources * Belinda Copson, ''Folly Magazine'' No. 27 (1999)
Reprint
at Collecting Books & Magazines (collectingbooksandmagazines.com).

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Willard, Barbara English children's writers English historical novelists Writers of historical fiction set in the early modern period Guardian Children's Fiction Prize winners People from Brighton 1909 births 1994 deaths Place of death missing English women novelists British women children's writers 20th-century English women writers 20th-century English novelists Women historical novelists People from Wivelsfield