Penelope Farmer facts for kids

Penelope Jane Farmer (born in 1939) is an English writer 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 time slip, where characters travel through time.

About Penelope Farmer's Life

Penelope Farmer was born in Westerham, Kent, England, on June 14, 1939. She is a fraternal twin, meaning she has a twin sister named Judith, but they are not identical. Penelope was born about 25 minutes after Judith, and her parents didn't even know she was coming! Being a twin has been a very important part of how Penelope sees herself.

Her close relationship with her twin sister Judith inspired some of her books. She wrote Two, or: The Book of Twins and Doubles in 1996 and Sisters: An Anthology in 1999. Penelope and Judith also have an older brother named Tim and a younger sister named Sally.

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

In 1994, she visited South Africa and talked to people about their thoughts on the election happening there. She later wrote an article about her experiences. In 2000, she 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. She also mentioned how much she loved and missed her grandchildren.

Penelope Farmer's Writing Journey

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, so she rewrote it. This became the first chapter of her first novel for children, The Summer Birds.

In 1963, The Summer Birds was highly praised. It received a special mention for the Carnegie Medal. It was also named an American Library Association Notable Book.

The Summer Birds was followed by its sequels: Emma in Winter (1966) and Charlotte Sometimes (1969). She also wrote other popular books like A Castle of Bone (1972), Year King (1977), and Penelope: A Novel (1993).

Penelope Farmer has shared that she didn't realize how much the idea of "identity" was in her books until others pointed it out. For example, she didn't see it as a main theme in Emma in Winter until a literary critic named Margery Fisher commented on it. She had a similar realization about Charlotte Sometimes while writing it.

Books by Penelope Farmer