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 A time slip is a plot device in fantasy and science fiction in which a person, or group of people, seem to travel through time by unknown means. The idea of a time slip was used in 19th century fantasy, an early example being Washington Irving ...

Life

Farmer was born a

fraternal twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...

Westerham Westerham is a town and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. It is located 3.4 miles east of Oxted and 6 miles west of Sevenoaks, adjacent to the Kent border with both Greater London and Surrey. It is recorded as early as t ...

, Kent, on 14 June 1939, as the third child of Hugh Robert MacDonald (died 26 May 2004) and Penelope Boothby Farmer. Her parents and hospital staff were unaware of her existence until some 25 minutes after the birth of her twin sister Judith. 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. After attending a

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

, she read history at

St Anne's College, Oxford St Anne's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 and gained full college status in 1959. Originally a women's college, it has admitted men since 1979. It has some 450 undergraduate and 200 ...

and did postgraduate work at

Bedford College, University of London Bedford College was in York Place after 1874 Bedford College was founded in London in 1849 as the first higher education college for women in the United Kingdom. In 1900, it became a constituent of the University of London. Having played a lead ...

. 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''.Farmer, Penelope (1994). 'We just have to wait and see'. Index on Censorship (3), 143-150

/ref> In 2000, Farmer published an article about the challenges facing the Hong Kong Chinese community in the UK.Farmer, Penelope (2000). 'Talking Chinese'. Index on Censorship (3), 178-183

/ref> According to Penelope Farmer's personal blog site, she was in 2012 living on

Lanzarote Lanzarote (, , ) is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. It is located approximately off the north coast of Africa and from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering , Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the i ...

in the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

. 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.

Writing career

Farmer's first publication was ''The China People'', a collection of literary fairy tales for young people, in 1960. 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 American Library Association Notable lists are announced each year in January by various divisions within the American Library Association (ALA). There are six lists, part of the larger ALA awards structure. * ''ALA Notable Books for Adults'' (est ...

. ''The Summer Birds'' was soon followed by its sequels, ''

Emma in Winter ''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 th ...

'' (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 Margery Lilian Edith Fisher ( née Turner) 1913–1992 was a British literary critic and academic. She was internationally renowned for her influence in promoting the importance of good literature for children. This came about through her books, ...

's comments on the book. She had a similar realization, this time on her own, while writing ''Charlotte Sometimes''.

Works

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Farmer, Penelope 1939 births British children's writers British fantasy writers Living people People from Westerham Alumni of St Anne's College, Oxford British women children's writers Women science fiction and fantasy writers Alumni of Bedford College, London