Michelle Magorian

Michelle Magorian was born in the English coastal city of Portsmouth in the southern county of Hampshire in 1947. From a young age, she aspired to become an actor. She studied acting at Rose Bruford College, a drama school in the suburbs of London, and then at L’École Internationale de Mime in Paris, France. After her studies, she worked as a stage actor, performing across the UK. While acting, she began writing her first novel, Good Night, Mr. Tom (1981), about a child evacuated from London to the English countryside at the outbreak of World War II. In the year after its publication, Good Night, Mr. Tom won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and International Reading Association Children’s Book Award. In 1998, Good Night, Mr. Tom was adapted into a film of the same name. Her second novel, Back Home (1984), also tells the story of an English child evacuee during World War II. In total, Magorian has written six novels; she has also published picture books, poetry collections, and one collection of short stories. She currently lives in Petersfield, a small town north of Portsmouth in Hampshire.