Barbara Grace de Riemer Sleigh (1906–1982) was an English children's writer and broadcaster. She is remembered most for her

Carbonel series ''Carbonel'' is a children's book series by Barbara Sleigh, first published by Puffin Books from 1955 to 1978. Also published in the US by Bobbs-Merrill from 1955. It has three novels, first '' Carbonel: the King of the Cats'' and two sequels, ''Th ...

about a king of cats.

Family and career

Barbara Sleigh was born on 9 January 1906 in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, the daughter of an artist,

Bernard Sleigh Bernard Sleigh (1872 – 7 December 1954) was an English mural painter, stained-glass artist, illustrator and wood engraver, best known for ''An Ancient Mappe of Fairyland, Newly Discovered and Set Forth'', which depicts numerous characters fro ...

, and his wife Stella, née Phillp, who had married in 1901. Both parents came from a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

background, but she was brought up an

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

. The family moved to

Chesham Chesham (, , or ) is a market town and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, south-east of the county town of Aylesbury, north-west of central London, and part of the London commuter belt. It is in the Chess Valley, surrounded by farmla ...

for a time, then back to Birmingham. Their marriage broke up in about 1914. Her older brother, Brocas Linwood Sleigh (1902–1965), would also become a writer. Having attended art college and teachers' training college, Sleigh taught in various schools before joining the teacher training department at

Goldsmiths College Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wor ...

in London in 1929. She went to work for the BBC programme ''

Children's Hour ''Children's Hour'', initially ''The Children's Hour'', was the BBC's principal recreational service for children (as distinct from "Broadcasts to Schools") which began during the period when radio was the only medium of broadcasting. ''Childre ...

'' in 1932. There, in 1935, she married a colleague, David Davis (1908–1996) at

Dunchurch Dunchurch is a large village and civil parish on the south-western outskirts of Rugby in Warwickshire, England, approximately southwest of central Rugby. The civil parish which also includes the nearby hamlet of Toft, had a population of 4,12 ...

, Warwickshire, but BBC house rules at the time would not allow husbands and wives to work in the same department. She therefore resigned and turned to freelance writing, film criticism and broadcasting. She and Davis had one son and two daughters. Barbara Sleigh died in 1982.

Writings

Sleigh's best-known novels for children are the three in the

(1955–1978), about a king of cats. These Carbonel books are still in print. Also centred on cats, but for a slightly older age group, is her 1962 novel ''

No One Must Know ''No One Must Know'' is a 1962 children's novel by the English writer Barbara Sleigh. The story concerns a small group of children living in English town, sandwiched between a railway and a warehouse, in a row of rented, white-painted terraced h ...

'', a realistic story of a group of neighbouring children attempting to evade a landlord's ban on pets. '' The Snowball'' (1969) is a fantasy, in which the snowball turns into a snow-child, causing some fun and chaos in the family. The other writings by Sleigh include novels for older children, notably ''

Jessamy ''Jessamy'' (1967) is a children's book by Barbara Sleigh, author of the Carbonel series. It sheds light on English life and childhood in the First World War, through a good-natured pre-adolescent female character, presented in detail, and a ...

'', a realistic 1967 time-slip novel; collections of stories; large amounts of radio adaptation; several picture books for younger children; and some educational readers. Several of her books came out in

Puffin Puffins are any of three species of small alcids (auks) in the bird genus ''Fratercula''. These are pelagic seabirds that feed primarily by diving in the water. They breed in large colonies on coastal cliffs or offshore islands, nesting in crev ...

, the Penguin imprint; she wrote an article in 1967 for the first number of the house magazine ''Puffin Post''. Sleigh was included in ''Uncle Mac's Children's Hour Book'' (Purnell, . 1950, in the 1974 children's anthology of stories and poems ''Happy Families'', edited by

Barbara Willard Barbara Mary Willard (12 March 1909 – 18 February 1994) was a British novelist best known for children's historical fiction. Her "Mantlemass Chronicles" is a family saga set in 15th to 17th-century England. For one chronicle, ''The Iron Lily'' ...

, and in the ''Puffin Annual'' (1974), edited by

Kaye Webb Kathleen ("Kaye") Webb (26 January 1914 – 16 January 1996), was a British editor and publisher. She was a recipient of the Eleanor Farjeon Award. Early life and education Kathleen Webb was born in Chiswick, London, in 1914, the second of ...

and others. Her final work was as the editor of an anthology of stories about witches: ''Broomsticks and Beasticles'' (1981)..

Bibliography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sleigh, Barbara 1906 births 1982 deaths English children's writers BBC people Academics of Goldsmiths, University of London English Anglicans Anglican writers People from Birmingham, West Midlands