Leila Berg (12 November 1917 – 17 April 2012) was an English children's author. She was also known as a journalist and a writer on education and

children's rights Children's rights are a subset of human rights with particular attention to the rights of special protection and care afforded to minors.

. Berg was a recipient of the

Eleanor Farjeon Award The Eleanor Farjeon Award is made for distinguished service to the world of British children's books and is given to someone whose commitment and contribution is deemed to be outstanding. Founded in 1966, it is presented annually in memory of the ce ...

Biography

Berg was brought up in

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

, Lancashire, in a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

doctor's family. She wrote vividly about that part of her life in ''Flickerbook'' (1997), describing also later meetings in Cambridge through her older brother, particularly with

Margot Heinemann Margot Claire Heinemann (18 November 1913 – 10 June 1992) was a British Marxist writer, drama scholar, and leading member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). Early life She was born at 89 Priory Road, West Hampstead, London NW6. ...

and

J. B. S. Haldane John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (; 5 November 18921 December 1964), nicknamed "Jack" or "JBS", was a British-Indian scientist who worked in physiology, genetics, evolutionary biology, and mathematics. With innovative use of statistics in biolog ...

, whom she would reference obliquely in the early ''Chunky'' books. She associated with Britain's

Young Communist League The Young Communist League (YCL) is the name used by the youth wing of various Communist parties around the world. The name YCL of XXX (name of country) originates from the precedent established by the Communist Youth International. Examples of Y ...

members at the time of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

, in which she lost two lovers, and eventually joined the movement. Her first journalist's job was with the British communist daily the ''

Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, attempts were ...

''. Berg was influenced in her thinking by the psychologist Susan Isaacs. After working as a journalist in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, during which she married and started a family, she began to write children's fiction. She also took an interest in the

progressive education Progressive education, or protractivism, is a pedagogical movement that began in the late 19th century and has persisted in various forms to the present. In Europe, progressive education took the form of the New Education Movement. The term ''pr ...

advocated by A. S. Neill at Summerhill, Michael Duane of ( Risinghill) and John Holt, who advocated "

unschooling Unschooling is an informal learning that advocates learner-chosen activities as a primary means for learning. Unschoolers learn through their natural life experiences including play, household responsibilities, personal interests and curiosit ...

Grittier style

Berg began writing in a more realistic and gritty style, for younger children, in the 1960s, in the ''

Nippers Nippers are young surf lifesavers, usually aged between 5 and 14 years old, in clubs across Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Unlike senior surf lifesavers, the majority of them do not patrol the beaches. The focus for Nippers tends t ...

'' series of readers. This was an influential move designed to bring children's books closer to ordinary urban life and away from the

Janet and John ''Janet and John'' is a series of early reading books for children, originally published in the UK by James Nisbet and Co in four volumes in 1949–50, and one of the first to make use of the "look and say" approach. Further volumes appeared l ...

reader style, and probably the cosiness of

Enid Blyton Enid Mary Blyton (11 August 1897 – 28 November 1968) was an English children's writer, whose books have been worldwide bestsellers since the 1930s, selling more than 600 million copies. Her books are still enormously popular and have b ...

's realm, a widespread influence in that period. She became the children's editor with the publisher Methuen. As she put it in a speech at the

University of Essex The University of Essex is a public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, Essex is one of the original plate glass universities. Essex's shield consists of the ancient arms attributed to the Kingdom of Es ...

, at an honorary degree ceremony: "All my life I have sought to empower children."

Award, death

She was awarded the

in 1974. Leila Berg died on 17 April 2012.

Works

References

External links

BiographyRisinghill School website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berg, Leila 1917 births 2012 deaths British children's writers British women children's writers British Communist writers British Jews People from Salford