Wonderful Ws by Lynne Benton

Here is my list of memorable children’s authors whose names begin with W:

E.B. WHITE  (Elwyn Brooks White) was an American writer who wrote for adults, but is probably better known these days for his books for children, including Stuart Little (c. 1945), Charlotte’s Web (c. 1952), and The Trumpet of the Swan (c. 1970). In a 2012 survey of School Library Journal readers, Charlotte's Web was voted the top children's novel.  Stuart Little was subsequently made into a film.  E.B. White died in 1985.

T.H. WHITE  (Terence Hanbury "Tim" White) was an English author best known for his Arthurian novels, The Once and Future King, first published together in 1958.  Most popular today is the first of the series, The Sword in the Stone, published as a stand-alone book in 1938.  This was followed by Mistress Masham’s Repose in 1946.  He died in 1964.

URSULA MORAY WILLIAMS was born in Hampshire and wrote nearly 70 books for children.  Adventures of the Little Wooden Horse, written while expecting her first child, remained in print throughout her life from its publication in 1939.  Her stories often involved brave creatures who overcome trials and cruelty in the outside world before finding a loving home. They included The Good Little Christmas Tree of 1943, and Gobbolino, the Witch’s Cat, first published the previous year. It immediately sold out but disappeared until re-issued in abridged form by Puffin Books twenty years later, when it became a best-seller.  She died in 2006.

ROBERT WESTALL was an English author and teacher best known for fiction aimed at children and young adults. Some deal with complex, dark and adult themes, many inspired by his experiences during the Second World War.  His first book, The Machine Gunners, won the 1975 Carnegie Medal for the year's outstanding children's book by a British subject, and in 2007 was named one of the top ten Medal-winning works for the 70th anniversary celebration.  In 1993 it was also filmed for television.  He also won a second Carnegie for The Scarecrows in 1981, and a Smarties Prize for Blitzcat in 1989.  He finally won the once-in-a-lifetime Guardian Prize for The Kingdom by the Sea in 1990.  He died in 1993.

KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN was born in 1856 in Philadelphia, USA, and became an American educator and author of children's stories.  She wrote many books for children books, but her most famous is the classic children's novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, (published 1903) a story of Rebecca and her two aunts, one stern and one kind.  This was subsequently filmed three times, in 1917, in 1932 and again  in 1938 (starring Shirley Temple).  She was also passionate about the welfare of children, and in 1878 she started the first free kindergarten in San Francisco.  During the 1880s she and her sister established a training school for kindergarten teachers. She died during a visit to England in 1923.

HENRY WILLIAMSON was born in London in 1895, but in his childhood the family moved to the Kent countryside, where he developed a deep love of nature.  He fought in WW1, which gave him a lifelong disgust with the pointlessness of war, and he wrote many books, often inspired by his own experiences.  His most famous book, however, remains Tarka the Otter, for which he won the Hawthornden Prize for literature in 1928.  He died in 1977.

LAURA INGALLS WILDER was an American writer, born in Wisconsin in 1857, who is best known for the Little House on the Prairie series of 8 children's books, published between 1932 and 1943, which were based on her childhood in a settler and pioneer family.  During the 1970s and early 1980s, the television series Little House on the Prairie was loosely based on the Little House books, and introduced them to a new generation of children, with whom they became very popular.  She died in 1957.

JACQUELINE WILSON is an English writer who writes for children.  As her children's novels frequently feature themes of adoption, divorce and mental illness, they are often controversial, though children love them.  Four of her books appear in the BBC's The Big Read poll of the 100 most popular books in the UK. Her Tracy Beaker series, beginning in 1991 with The Story of Tracy Beaker, includes three sequels and has been adapted into four CBBC television series.  Many of her other books have also been adapted for television.  She has written more than a hundred books over the course of her career, and has won many awards, including the Smarties Prize and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize.  She has also been nominated twice for the Carnegie medal.  From 2005-2007 she became the fourth Children’s Laureate, and in 2008 she was made Dame of the British Empire.

My next post will take us to the end of the alphabet, as I will put X (can’t find any writers whose names begin with X - unless any of you know some?) Y and Z together.  I shall be sorry to finish this series, as I’ve really enjoyed writing it!

Website: www.lynnebenton.com

Latest book “Danger at Hadrian’s Wall”