Several of her books have won the Esther Glen Award (New Zealand) and the New Zealand Post Children's Book Award. She has also written extensively for television (including Maddigan's Quest, 2006) and adapted The Haunting (1982) as a feature film. Her books for adolescents include The Catalogue of the Universe (1985) Memory (1996) and The Other Side of Silence (1982). She has also written a series of books called 'The Cousins Quartet' comprising of The Good Fortunes Gang (1993) A Fortunate Name (1993) A Fortune Branches Out (1993) and Tangled Fortunes (1994). She continues to do this in books such as Tingleberries, Tuckertubs and Telephones (1995). Her picture books include the mystical The Wind Between The Stars (1976) and Leaf Magic (1976) The Little Round Husband (1990) Down The Dragon's Tongue (2000), and more recently, Down the Back of the Chair (2006). Her junior fiction, mostly humorous, includes fantasy and adventure, such as The Pirate Uncle (1977), and some tales in the supernatural tradition, including Aliens in the Family (1986) The Tricksters (1986) and The Changeover (1984), the latter being the first book in which she incorporated a New Zealand setting. She has since written many books for children and young adults, including school readers.

Her first book, A Lion in the Meadow, was published in 1969, and was followed by many more picture books and story collections during the 1970s. She then studied at New Zealand Library School in Wellington, and worked in libraries until becoming a full-time writer in 1980 - first at Petone Public Library, then for the School Library Service in Christchurch, and finally in the Children's Library at Canterbury Public Library. Margaret Mahy was born in 1936 in Whakatane, New Zealand, and studied philosophy at St.Īuckland University College and Canterbury University College.

A lion in the meadow by margaret mahy