Theresa Tomlinson facts for kids

Theresa Tomlinson (born 1946 in Crawley, Sussex) is an English writer for children, mainly of historical fiction. She advocates giving children "the opportunity to consider many different role models and ways of life, so that they can make up their own minds about what is right for them."

Life and work

The daughter of Alan and Joan Johnston, she lived as a child in Cleveland and North Yorkshire, where her father was an Anglican vicar. She attended Hull College of Art and later Hull College of Education. Tomlinson spent much of her married life in Sheffield, and it was there, as she began to tell stories to her three children, that she began to enjoy writing. She especially likes working on historical fiction.

Now a grandmother, she lives in Whitby with her husband. In recent years she has been particularly interested in the Anglo-Saxon period. She is a member of the National Association of Writers in Education and the British Society of Authors.

Tomlinson Forestwife trilogy (The Forestwife (1993),Child of the May (1998) and The Path of the She Wolf (2000)) is a retelling of the Robin Hood legend focused on Maid Marian.

Tomlinson's novel Better Than Gold focuses on the life of King Penda of Mercia.

Influences

Tomlinson told an English Association interview that her favourite childhood books were The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis and Francis Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden In adulthood she became attracted to the work of Alan Garner and Jane Gardam.