Philippa Pearce

Author Information
Philippa Pearce's Latest Book

Newest Release

  • Bibliography:
    23 Books
  • First Book:
    January 1958
  • Latest Book:
    September 2021
  • Author Rating:
  • Share:
About the Author

Ann Philippa Pearce OBE (22 January 1920 – 21 December 2006) was an English author of children's books. Her most famous work is the time slip fantasy novel Tom's Midnight Garden, which won the 1958 Carnegie Medal from the Library Association inspiring a film, a stage play and three TV versions.

The youngest of four children of a flour miller and corn merchant, Philippa Pearce was born in the village of Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, and brought up there on the River Cam at the Mill House. Starting school late at the age of eight because of illness, she went on to Girton College, Cambridge on a scholarship to read English and History.

After gaining her degree, Pearce moved to London, where she found work as a civil servant. Later she wrote and produced schools' radio programmes for the BBC, where she remained for 13 years and was a children's editor at the Oxford University Press.

Pearce wrote over 30 books and in 2004 published her first new full-length book for two decades, The Little Gentleman. One further children's novel was published posthumously in 2008: A Finder's Magic.

Book List in Order: 23 titles

  • Tom's Midnight Garden

    Tom resented having to stay with his aunt and uncle when his brother Peter caught the measles. He knew he'd be bored and that he'd miss Peter as well as the garden at home where they loved to play. But when the time came to return home, Tom did ev...

  • Who's Afraid? And Other Strange Stories

    • / General Fiction
    • Buy Buy

    Each of these 11 stories lures the unsuspecting listener into the ghostly world of the supernatural. Who has not been afraid of something? These gripping stories explore the possibilities – hair-raising, spine-chilling, blood-curdling. Here&...

  • The Way to Sattin Shore

    Kate Tranter is fatherless - or is she? The evidence of the tombstone she finds in the churchyard seems conclusive. And yet... The tombstone disappears and Kate is left with a mystery about which her family either knows nothing or will tell nothin...

  • Picnic for Bunnykins

  • Two Bunnykins Out to Tea

  • Here Comes Tod!

  • A Century of Children's Ghost Stories

    As a genre, children's ghost writing is a relative newcomer to the literary field. While children's literature has flourished for over 200 years, supernatural fiction for the young has really only come into its own in the twentieth century. Dread and...

  • Minnow on the Say

    It''s a great discovery. Right there, at the bottom of the garden, bobbing on the river, is a canoe. The Minnow. David can''t help wishing he could keep her . . .The Minnow leads him to Adam, and an extraordinary summer begins. Armed with a myste...

  • The Little Gentleman

    One day old Mr. Franklin asks Bet to go out to the field and read aloud from a book about earthworms. Why? Who is listening? Soon, Bet becomes the most trusted friend of her listener, who turns out to be a bewitched mole. At first she and the mole...



  • The Squirrel Wife

    A kind young man is rewarded with a bride who is kin to the wild in this beautiful, original fairy tale.

    The green people in the woods are feared by all -- all except swineherd Jack, who dares to venture into the forest to answer a cry for h...

  • A Finder's Magic

    A boy who loses his dog meets a mysterious stranger and has a surprising adventure in an enchanting tale from a stellar author-illustrator team.

    When Till’s beloved dog slips its leash on their daily romp, the boy goes to bed in despair. But...

  • Familiar and Haunting: Collected Stories

    FAMILIAR Here are stories of everyday life, as familiar as a piece of rope and... ...as haunting as fear: Mike knows that he can't swing over the river on the knotted rope, but with everyone watching him, he has to try. ...as haunting as a st...

  • A Dog So Small

    Ben Blewitt is desperate for a dog. He's picked out the biggest and best dogs from the books in the library - and he just knows he's going to get one for his birthday. Ben is excited when the big day arrives, but he receives a picture of a dog instea...

  • Amy's Three Best Things

    In a tale both comforting and magical, a child finds a way to calm her worries during a first visit away from home. Amy may never have spent a night away from home, but today she declares that she wants to spend not one but three nights at her gra...

  • Lion at School and Other Stories

    A growling lion spends the morning at school and frightens the school bully; a little boy saves a mouse’s life; Totty spends the night with a ‘man-eating manatee’; a crooked little finger gets Judy into trouble; and the Great Sharp ...

  • The Ghost In Annie's Room

    Emma is happy to sleep in her Cousin Annie''s old attic bedroom when staying with her great-aunt Win. But when bedtime comes, she starts feeling nervous. Her brother Joe insists that the room is haunted. Could he be right? Emma must face her fears an...

  • The Minnow Leads to Treasure

  • Mrs. Cockle's Cat

  • The Rope and Other Stories



  • The Battle of Bubble and Squeak

    • / Fantasy
    • Buy Buy

  • The Elm Street Lot

    • / General Fiction
    • Buy Buy

  • The Shadow-Cage, and Other Tales of the Supernatural

    • / Horror
    • Buy Buy

  • What the Neighbors Did and Other Stories

    • / General Fiction
    • Buy Buy

Award-Winning Books by Philippa Pearce

Familiar and Haunting: Collected Stories
2003 Children's Books of Distinction Award -- Fiction


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Philippa Pearce has published 23 books.

Philippa Pearce does not have a new book coming out soon. The latest book, The Rope and Other Stories, was published in September 2021.

The first book by Philippa Pearce, Tom's Midnight Garden, was published in January 1958.

No. Philippa Pearce does not write books in series.
No ads, please...

$20 / year

FictionDB Premium Membership

Subscribe