Penelope Farmer facts for kids

Penelope Jane Farmer, born in 1939, is an English writer. She is famous for her fantasy novels for children. Her most well-known book is Charlotte Sometimes (1969). This story is about a boarding school and features a special kind of time slip, where characters travel through time.

About Penelope Farmer's Life

Penelope Farmer was born on June 14, 1939, in Westerham, Kent, England. She was a fraternal twin, meaning she had a twin sister named Judith. Her parents and the hospital staff didn't know she was there until about 25 minutes after Judith was born! Being a twin has been a very important part of how Penelope understands herself.

Her close bond with her twin sister Judith is often seen in her books. She even published books like Two, or: The Book of Twins and Doubles (1996) and Sisters: An Anthology (1999). Penelope also has an older brother, Tim, and a younger sister, Sally.

After going to a boarding school, Penelope studied history at St Anne's College, Oxford. She also did more studies at Bedford College, University of London.

In 1994, she visited South Africa. She talked to people there about their thoughts on an election. Later, she wrote an article about her experiences, which was published in a magazine called Index on Censorship. In 2000, Farmer also wrote an article about the challenges faced by the Chinese community from Hong Kong living in the UK.

According to her personal blog, Penelope Farmer was living on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands in 2012. She described herself as a writer who had been published for many years but was finding it hard to write at that time. She also mentioned how much she loved and missed her grandchildren.

Penelope Farmer's Writing Career

Penelope Farmer's first book was The China People, published in 1960. It was a collection of magical fairy tales for young readers. One story she wrote for this collection was too long to include. She rewrote it as the first chapter of her first novel for children, The Summer Birds.

In 1963, The Summer Birds received a special mention for the Carnegie Medal. It was also named an American Library Association Notable Book. This means it was recognized as an important book.

After The Summer Birds, she wrote its follow-up stories. These included Emma in Winter (1966) and Charlotte Sometimes (1969). Other books she wrote are A Castle of Bone (1972), Year King (1977), Thicker than Water (1989), Penelope: A Novel (1993), and Granny and Me (1998).

Penelope Farmer has said that she didn't realize how much the idea of "identity" was a main theme in her book Emma in Winter until a book critic, Margery Fisher, pointed it out. She had a similar discovery on her own when she was writing Charlotte Sometimes.

List of Works