Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the authors and illustrators who agreed to be interviewed for this website, and to all copyright holders, including publishers, who granted permission for material to be reproduced here. A special thank you to Ian Beck, who was the very first interviewee, and whose generous spirit set the tone for the whole project.

The volunteer staff at the Twickenham Museum suggested several useful contacts. The museum’s website also features information about local writers. Many of the books featured here are, of course, available in Richmond upon Thames Libraries; staff in branches throughout the borough were helpful. In particular, I would like to thank Jane Baxter and her team in Richmond’s Local Studies Collection for retrieving huge and exciting files of information about relevant past authors and illustrators, and Joss Green of the Young People’s Library Service, Richmond Libraries, for suggesting a number of more recent and contemporary names.

The extremely knowledgeable booksellers at The Lion & Unicorn Bookshop in Richmond and at Langton’s Bookshop in Twickenham (which closed, alas, in 2012) also suggested children’s books and authors with local connections.

Bibliography

The following general works informed my background reading and research. References are given for each post where specific works are cited.

• Bingham, Jane M., ed. Writers for Children: Critical Studies of Major Authors since the Seventeenth Century. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1988.
• Carpenter, Humphrey, and Mari Prichard. The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984. Reprinted with corrections 1985.
• Chevalier, Tracy, ed. Twentieth-Century Children’s Writers. 3rd ed. Chicago and London: St. James Press, 1989.
• Freeman, John. Literature and Locality: The Literary Topography of Britain and Ireland. London: Cassell, 1963.
• Glinert, Ed. A Literary Guide to London. London: Penguin, 2000.
• Major Authors and Illustrators for Children and Young Adults: A Selection of Sketches from Something about the Author. 2nd ed. 8 vols. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2002.
• Matthew, H. C. G., and Brian Harrison, eds. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: From the Earliest Years to the Year 2000. 60 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
• Nettell, Stephanie. Meet the Authors and Illustrators: 60 Creators of Favourite Children’s Books. London: Scholastic, 1994.
• Phinn, Gervase. The Address Book of Children’s Authors and Illustrators. Grand Rapids, MI: LDA, 2002.
• Rennison, Nick. The London Blue Plaque Guide. Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 1999.
• Simpson, Donald, ed. Twickenham Past. London: Historical Publications, 1993.
• Sumeray, Derek. Discovering London Plaques. Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire: Shire Publications, 1999.
• Tagholm, Roger. Walking Literary London: 25 Original Walks through London’s Literary Heritage. London: New Holland, 2001.
• Watson, Victor, ed. The Cambridge Guide to Children’s Books in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
• White, Andrew, ed. Time Out Book of London Walks. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. 2 vols. London: Penguin, 2002.
• ——, ed. Time Out Book of London Walks. Vol. 2. 2 vols. London: Penguin, 2001.