Jill Paton Walsh facts for kids

Quick facts for kids The Right Honourable The Lady Hemingford CBE FRSL
Paton Walsh in 2011
Born	Gillian Honorine Mary Bliss (1937-04-29)29 April 1937 London, England
Died	18 October 2020(2020-10-18) (aged 83) Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, England
Nationality	English
Occupation	author
Known for	Knowledge of Angels
Spouse(s)	Antony Paton Walsh ​ ​ (m. 1961; died 2003)​ John Rowe Townsend ​ ​ (m. 2004; died 2014)​ Nicholas Herbert, 3rd Baron Hemingford ​ (m. 2020)​
Children	3

Gillian Honorine Mary Herbert, Baroness Hemingford, CBE, FRSL (born Bliss; 29 April 1937 – 18 October 2020), was a famous English writer. She was known professionally as Jill Paton Walsh. She wrote many books for both adults and children.

Jill Paton Walsh is perhaps best known for her novel Knowledge of Angels. This book was nominated for the Booker Prize. She also continued the popular Peter Wimsey–Harriet Vane mystery series. These stories were originally created by Dorothy L. Sayers.

About Jill Paton Walsh's Life

Gillian Honorine Mary Bliss was born in London, England, on 29 April 1937. Her father, John Bliss, was an engineer for the BBC. He had many patents for his inventions. Her mother, Patricia Paula DuBern, was a homemaker.

When Jill was three years old, she moved with her mother and siblings. They went to live with her grandparents in St Ives, Cornwall. This was because of the World War II bombings in London. In 1944, she returned to London to live with her mother and younger siblings.

Jill went to school at St. Michael's Convent in London. Later, she studied at St Anne's College, Oxford. She graduated in 1959. After college, she lived in Cambridge.

Early Career and Family

After graduating, Jill taught English at Enfield County Grammar School for Girls. In 1961, she married Antony Edmund Paton Walsh. They settled in Richmond, south-west London. Jill left her teaching job in 1962 because she was expecting her first child. They had three children: one son and two daughters.

Later in her life, Jill married two more times. She married John Rowe Townsend in 2004. He passed away in 2014. In February 2020, she met Nicholas Herbert, 3rd Baron Hemingford. They married in September of that year.

Jill Paton Walsh passed away three weeks later, on 18 October 2020. She died in a hospital in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire.

Awards and Recognitions

Jill Paton Walsh received several important awards for her writing.

• In 1996, she was given the CBE. This award recognized her great contributions to literature.
• She was also chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
• In 1998, she won the Phoenix Award. This award is given by the Children's Literature Association. It celebrates children's books that were published twenty years earlier but didn't win a major award at the time. Her book A Chance Child received this honor.

Jill Paton Walsh's Books

Jill Paton Walsh wrote many different types of books. She wrote novels for adults and also many popular books for children.

Adult Novels

Her novel Knowledge of Angels (1993) is a philosophical novel set in the Middle Ages. It was shortlisted for the 1994 Booker Prize. Other novels for adults include:

• Farewell, Great King (1972)
• Lapsing (1986), about Catholic university students.
• A School for Lovers (1989), which retells the story of Mozart's opera Cosi fan tutte.
• The Serpentine Cave (1997), based on a lifeboat disaster in St Ives.
• A Desert in Bohemia (2000), which follows characters in England and an imaginary Eastern European country.

Imogen Quy Mysteries

Jill Paton Walsh wrote four detective stories. These books featured a part-time college nurse named Imogen Quy. The stories were set in the fictional St. Agatha's College at the University of Cambridge.

• The Wyndham Case (1993)
• A Piece of Justice (1995)
• Debts of Dishonour (2006)
• The Bad Quarto (2007)

Lord Peter Wimsey Series

In 1998, Jill Paton Walsh finished an unfinished novel by Dorothy L. Sayers. This book was part of the Lord Peter Wimsey–Harriet Vane series and was called Thrones, Dominations. She then wrote more books in this series:

• A Presumption of Death (2002)
• The Attenbury Emeralds (2010)
• The Late Scholar (2013/2014)

Children's Books

Jill Paton Walsh wrote many beloved books for young readers.

• Hengest's Tale (1966)
• The Dolphin Crossing (1967)
• Word Hoard: Anglo-Saxon stories (1969), with Kevin Crossley-Holland.
• Fireweed (1969)
• Goldengrove (1972)
• The Dawnstone (1973)
• Toolmaker (1973)
• The Emperor's Winding Sheet (1974) — This book won the Whitbread Prize for children's books.
• The Butty Boy (1975)
• The Huffler (1975)
• The Island Sunrise: prehistoric Britain (1975) — This was a non-fiction book.
• Unleaving (1976) — This book was a sequel to Goldengrove and won the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for fiction.
• Crossing to Salamis (1977)
• The Walls of Athens (1977)
• A Chance Child (1978)
• Children of the Fox (1978)
• The Green Book (1981)
• Babylon (1982)
• A Parcel of Patterns (1983)
• Gaffer Samson's Luck (1984) — This book won the Smarties Prize.
• Birdy and the Ghosties (1989)
• Grace (1991)
• When Grandma Came (1992)
• Thomas and the Tinners (1995) — This book was longlisted for the Carnegie Medal.