Name Cynthia Harnett Role Author | Awards Carnegie Medal | |
Died October 25, 1981, Hook, United Kingdom Books The Wool‑Pack, The Load of Unicorn, Stars of fortune, The Writing on the Hearth, Ring Out Bow Bells! | ||
Education Chelsea College of Arts | ||
Cynthia Harnett (22 June 1893 – 25 October 1981) was an English author and illustrator, mainly of children's books. She is best known for six historical novels that feature ordinary teenage children involved in events of national significance, four of them in the 15th century. They are characterised by meticulous background research and vivid evocation of history.
For one of them, The Wool-Pack (1951), she won the Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject. Another, The Load of Unicorn (1959), was a commended runner-up for the Carnegie Medal.
Life
Cynthia Harnett was born in London and studied at Chelsea School of Art. She illustrated the early editions of several of her own novels, but she also collaborated more than a dozen times with the painter and etcher George Vernon Stokes (1873–1954). Several of their books about dogs, the countryside or both credit Stokes and Harnett as co-authors.