Flora Thompson facts for kids

Flora Jane Thompson (5 December 1876 – 21 May 1947) was an English novelist and poet. She is best known for her three books about the English countryside, called the Lark Rise to Candleford trilogy. These books share stories from her own life.

Flora was born in a small village called Juniper Hill in north-east Oxfordshire. She was the oldest of six children. Her father, Albert, was a stonemason, and her mother, Emma Timms, was a nursemaid. Flora often wrote about her favorite brother, Edwin, who was a very important friend during her childhood. Sadly, Edwin was killed in a war near Ypres in 1916. Flora went to school in the village of Cottisford.

Working Life and Family

After school, Flora worked in several post offices across southern England. Her first job was in Fringford in 1891. She worked there as an assistant to the postmistress, Mrs. Kezia Whitton. Later, she also worked in post offices in Grayshott, Hampshire, and then moved to Bournemouth. In 1903, Flora married John William Thompson. They had two sons and one daughter together.

Becoming a Writer

Flora loved to read, and she had good access to books when a public library opened in Winton in 1907. This helped her a lot with her writing. In 1911, she won an essay competition in a magazine called The Ladies Companion. She wrote a 300-word essay about the famous writer Jane Austen. After this, Flora started writing a lot more. She published many short stories, as well as articles for magazines and newspapers. She was also very interested in natural history and taught herself a lot about nature. Many of her nature articles were collected and published in a book in 1986.

The Lark Rise to Candleford Trilogy

Flora Thompson's most famous books are the Lark Rise to Candleford trilogy. She sent these stories, which were like essays, to Oxford University Press in 1938, and they were published soon after. The books tell a story about country life in England during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Even though they are based on her own life, they are also fictional stories. Today, these books are considered important classic stories about English rural life.

Flora Thompson passed away in 1947 in Brixham, Devon. She is buried at Longcross Cemetery in Dartmouth, Devon.

Flora Thompson's Works

Verse

• Bog Myrtle and Peat (1921)

Novels

• Lark Rise (1939)
• Over to Candleford (1941)
• Candleford Green (1943)
• Lark Rise to Candleford (1945, these three novels were published together as a trilogy)
• Still Glides the Stream (1948, published after she died)
• Heatherley (a follow-up to Lark Rise to Candleford, written around 1944. It was first published in a book called A Country Calendar in 1979, and then as its own book in 1998.)
• Gates of Eden (This story was published in parts in a magazine called The Peverel Monthly in the late 1920s, but it was never published as a full book.)

Nature Articles

• The Peverel Papers (1986, published after she died)

See also

• Flora Thompson para niños (Flora Thompson for children in Spanish)