Paton Walsh, Jill (1937–)
Paton Walsh, Jill (1937–)
British children's writer and novelist. Name variations: Gillian Paton Walsh. Born Gillian Honoinne Mary Bliss, April 29, 1937, in London, England; dau. of John Llewellyn Bliss and Patricia Dubern Bliss; attended St. Michael's Convent, North Finchley, and St. Anne's College, Oxford; m. Antony Edmund Paton Walsh, 1961 (sep.); children: 1 son, 2 daughters.
Best-known for her children's books, taught English at Enfield Girls' Grammar School in Middlesex (1959–62); was a visiting faculty member of the Center for Children's Literature, Simmons College, Boston (1978–86); served as Gertrude Clarke Whittall lecturer at Library of Congress (1978) and as a Whitbread Prize judge (1984); with John Rowe Townsend, founded Green Bay Publications, a small specialist imprint in Cambridge (1986); works include Hengest's Tale (1966), Goldengrove (1972), The Island Sunrise: Prehistoric Britain (1975), Persian Gold (1978), Babylon (1981), A Parcel of Patterns (1983), Torch (1987), Can I Play Jenny Jones (1990), The Wyndham Case (1993), A Piece of Justice (1995), and A Desert in Bohemia (2000). Won Book World Festival Award for Fireweed (1970), Whitbread Prize for The Emperor's Winding Sheet (1974), Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Unleaving (1976), and Universe Prize for A Parcel of Patterns (1984); her novel Knowledge of Angels was shortlisted for Booker Prize (1994); made CBE (1996); elected fellow of Royal Society of Literature.