Margaret Storey (children's writer)

Elizabeth Margaret Storey (27 June 1926 – 28 September 2022) was a British author of books for children and young adults published by Faber.

Biography

Elizabeth Margaret Storey was born on 26 June 1926.^[1] She attended Girton College in Cambridge in 1948 to gain a BA Honours degree in English, and thereafter worked as an English teacher.^[2]

Neil Gaiman has cited her as an influence: "Margaret Storey is more or less out of print these days, alas. I loved her when I was about seven or eight, and am looking forward to finding out how much of her stuff has wound up in mine."^[3]

Her work included a fantasy series based on the adventures of two children, Timothy and Ellen, and a witch named Melinda Farbright: "the real thing – strange and magical, and above all, dangerous".^[3]

• Timothy and Two Witches (1966) - Illustrated by Charles W. Stewart^[4]
• The Stone Wizard aka "The Stone Sorcerer" (1967) - Illustrated by Charles W. Stewart
• The Dragon's Sister and Timothy Travels (1967) - Illustrated by Charles W. Stewart
• A Quarrel of Witches (1970 - Illustrated by Doreen Roberts^[5]
• The Sleeping Witch (1971) - Illustrated by Janina Ede^[6]
• A War of Wizards (1976) - Illustrated by Janina Ede
• The Double Wizard (1979) - Illustrated by June Jackson

She also wrote:

• Pauline (1965)
• Wrong Gear (1973)
• Keep Running (1974)
• Kate And The Family Tree (1965) - illustrated by Shirley Hughes^{[citation needed]}
• The Smallest Doll (1966) - illustrated by Shirley Hughes
• The Smallest Bridesmaid (1966) - illustrated by Shirley Hughes
• The Mollyday Holiday (1971) - Illustrated by Janina Ede

Pauline, about an orphan forced to live with uncomprehending relatives, has been described as "an astonishingly mature novel for a new writer".^[7]

She should not be confused with the mystery writer Margaret Storey, who has written a number of books, sometimes under the pseudonym Elizabeth Eyre with the author Jill Staynes.

Storey died on 28 September 2022, at the age of 96.^[8]