Mary Norton (author)

This article is about the British author. For American author born Alice Mary Norton, see Andre Norton. For other uses, see Mary Norton.

Mary Norton
'The Cedars', Norton's house until 1921 and reportedly the setting of The Borrowers
Born	Kathleen Mary Pearson (1903-12-10)10 December 1903 London, England, UK
Died	Bideford, Devon, UK
Occupation	Writer
Nationality	British
Genre	Children's fantasy novels
Notable works	The Borrowers series The Magic Bed Knob Bonfires and Broomsticks
Notable awards	Carnegie Medal 1952

Mary Norton, or Kathleen Mary Norton née Pearson (10 December 1903 – 29 August 1992), was an English author of children's books. She is best known for the The Borrowers series of low fantasy novels (1952 to 1982), which is named after its first book and, in turn, the tiny people who live secretly in the midst of contemporary human civilisation.

Norton won the 1952 Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising The Borrowers as the year's outstanding children's book by a British subject. For the 70th anniversary of the Medal in 2007 it was named one of the top ten winning works, selected by a panel to compose the ballot for a public election of the all-time favourite.

Background

Kathleen Mary Pearson was the daughter of a physician and was raised in a Georgian house at the end of the High Street in Leighton Buzzard. The house now forms part of Leighton Middle School, known within the school as The Old House, and was reportedly the setting of her novel The Borrowers. She married Robert Charles Norton on 4 September 1927 and had four children, two boys and two girls. Her second husband was Lionel Bonsey, whom she married in 1970. She began working for the War Office in 1940 before the family moved temporarily to the United States. She began writing while working for the British Purchasing Commission in New York during the Second World War. Her first book was The Magic Bed Knob; or, How to Become a Witch in Ten Easy Lessons, published by J. M. Dent in 1943. Its sequel Bonfires and Broomsticks followed two years later and they were re-issued jointly as Bed-Knob and Broomstick in 1957. The stories became the basis for the 1971 Disney film Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Norton died of a stroke in Bideford, Devon, England on 29 August 1992.

Works

File:Mary Norton's Devon House.jpg

'Borrowers’ Cottage' — Mary Norton spent the final years of her life living in this house in Hartland, North Devon, with her second husband, Lionel Bonsey.

All of these books were originally published by J. M. Dent in hardcover editions.

• The Magic Bed Knob; or, How to Become a Witch in Ten Easy Lessons (1943)
• Bonfires and Broomsticks (1945)

The first omnibus edition was Bed-Knob and Broomstick (1957), illustrated by Erik Blegvad; later Bedknobs and Broomsticks after the Disney film (see adaptations).

• The Borrowers (1952) — winner of the Carnegie Medal
• The Borrowers Afield (1955)
• The Borrowers Afloat (1959) — a Carnegie runner-up
• The Borrowers Aloft (1961)
• Poor Stainless: A New Story About the Borrowers (1966)
• Are All the Giants Dead? (1975) — no relation to the Borrowers series
• The Borrowers Avenged (1982)
• The Complete Borrowers Stories (omnibus, excluding Poor Stainless, issued with an introduction by the author) (1983)
• Poor Stainless (revised as a novelette with a short author's note) (1994) (Viking UK, 0-670-85427-1).

The Borrowers novels have been illustrated by Diana Stanley ja Ilon Wikland.

Published posthumously by Virago:

• The Bread and Butter Stories (1998) - a collection of short stories for adults, written for magazines.

Film, TV and theatrical adaptations

File:Mary Norton's final resting place.JPG

Mary Norton’s final resting place in the graveyard of Saint Nectan’s, Stoke, the parish church of Hartland, Devon. The inscription on the headstone reads:
“Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumnal rain.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.”
(Extract from a poem by Mary Elizabeth Frye.)

Norton's novels The Magic Bed Knob; or, How to Become a Witch in Ten Easy Lessons and Bonfires and Broomsticks were adapted into the 1971 Disney film Bedknobs and Broomsticks, starring Angela Lansbury and David Tomlinson.

There have been several screen adaptations of The Borrowers:

• The Borrowers: a 1973 American made-for-TV movie.
• The Borrowers: a 1992 BBC TV series and its 1993 sequel The Return of the Borrowers, both starring Ian Holm and Penelope Wilton.
• The Borrowers: a 1997 film with a British/American cast including Tom Felton, John Goodman, Jim Broadbent, Celia Imrie and Mark Williams.
• The Secret World of Arrietty: a 2010 Japanese animated film from Studio Ghibli.
• The Borrowers: a 2011 British film starring Stephen Fry, Victoria Wood and Christopher Eccleston.

There have also been numerous theatrical adaptations of The Borrowers.

External links

• Mary Norton at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Mary Norton at Library of Congress Authorities, with 44 catalogue records