Philippa Pearce

1 universe Last reviewed 2026-08-27

Philippa Pearce, born Ann Philippa Pearce on January 22, 1920, in Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, England, was an acclaimed British children's author. She attended the Perse School for Girls in Cambridge before winning a scholarship to Girton College, Cambridge, where she studied English and history. After graduating she worked as a civil servant in London, then spent thirteen years writing and producing radio programs for the BBC, before serving as children's editor at Oxford University Press from 1958 to 1960 and at André Deutsch publishing from 1960 to 1967. Her debut novel, Minnow on the Say (1955), was followed by her most celebrated work, Tom's Midnight Garden (1958), widely regarded as one of the classic time-slip stories for children and honored as the second-best Carnegie Medal winner of all time in a 2007 public poll marking the award's 70th anniversary. Pearce won the Carnegie Medal outright in 1958 for the novel and was a commended runner-up for the prize on four further occasions. She married Martin Christie in 1962, and the couple had one daughter, Sally Christie, who also became a children's author. Pearce returned to live in Great Shelford from 1973 and died there in Durham on December 21, 2006, aged 86.

Universe(s)

Books

• Tom's Midnight Garden (1958) · Tom's Midnight Garden Core Canon

Aggregate across all universes

• Total Core Canon books across all universes: 1 book
• Award recognitions across all universes: 1 (1 won)

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