View source for Lorna Hill

{{short description|English author}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2016}}
{{Infobox writer
|name = Lorna Hill
|image = File:Lorna Hill, Evergreen Winter 1996 97.jpg
|caption =
|birth_name = Lorna Leatham
|birth_date = {{Birth date|1902|2|21|df=y}}
|birth_place = [[Durham, England|Durham]], England
|death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1991|8|17|1902|2|21}}
|death_place = [[Keswick, Cumbria]], England
|occupation = Novelist, teacher
|nationality = British
|period = 1948&ndash;1978
|genre =
|subject =
|movement =
|notableworks = ''Marjorie'' series, 
''[[Sadlers Wells]]'' series
|influences =
|influenced =
|website =
}}
{{Portal |Children's literature}}
'''Lorna Hill''' (born Lorna Leatham,<ref>A rare mention of her maiden name on a bookseller site: [https://books.google.com/books?id=kSlPAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Lorna+Hill%22 Retrieved 2 April 2011.]</ref> 21 February 1902 in [[Durham, England|Durham]], England, died 17 August 1991 in [[Keswick, Cumbria]]), was an English author of over 40 [[children's literature|books for children]].<ref>[http://lornahill.blogspot.com/2009/04/lorna-hill-1902-1991.html Retrieved 2 April 2011.]</ref> These remained popular into the 21st century.

==Life and works==
Lorna, the daughter of G. H. Leatham and his wife Edit (née Rutter), attended [[Durham High School for Girls]] and then Le Manoir, a finishing school in [[Lausanne]], Switzerland. She gained a BA in English literature in 1926, at [[Durham University]], where met her husband, Victor Hill, an [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] clergyman. They were married in [[Newcastle-upon-Tyne]] in 1928 and in 1931 moved to the remote parish of [[Matfen]], [[Northumberland]], where she played the church organ and ran a [[Sunday school]].<ref>Caroline Bacon, "The storyteller for schoolgirls", ''Evergreen'', Winter 1996–1997, pp. 108–113.</ref>

Hill's career as an author began when her daughter Vicki (Shirley Victorine), aged about ten, found a story her mother had written as a child and asked for more about its characters. The result was a series of eight books about ''Marjorie & Co'', illustrated by author. These began to be published in London in 1948. They were followed by the ''Patience'' series and several others.

When Vicki left home to be a ballet student at [[Sadler's Wells]] in [[London]], Hill missed her and began to write her ''Dream of Sadler's Wells'' series. She eventually wrote a total of 40 children's books, as well as ''La Sylphide'', a commissioned biography of the dancer [[Marie Taglioni]] and two romances for adults, published in 1978. Hill was then obliged to stop writing by ill health. She is said to have been firm with publishers and to have earned more from her books than many of her contemporaries. Translations of some titles into several other languages appeared, including less usual ones such as Finnish (by Pirkko Biström, 1991), Indonesian (1994), Czech (1995) and Slovenian (by Bernarda Petelinšek, 1996).

In private life, Hill took an interest in animal rights that led to conflict with neighbouring farmers. She moved late in life to Keswick, Cumbria, where she lived with Vicki. She died on 17 August 1991.<ref>[http://lornahill.blogspot.com/2009/04/lorna-hill-1902-1991.html Retrieved 2 April 2011.]</ref>

The reprint list of [[Girls Gone By Publishers]], based in [[Radstock]], [[Somerset]], included four of Lorna Hill's children's books in 2011, although by 2019 they were out of print.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lorna Hill |url=https://www.ggbp.co.uk/authors-and-series/lorna-hill |website=Girls Gone By Publishers |accessdate=22 September 2019}}</ref> The UK publishing journal ''The Publisher'' remarked in 1948, "Lorna Hill writes the kind of books children would write for, and about, themselves if they could."<ref>''The Publisher'', journal of the Publishers' Association, Vol. 162. [https://books.google.com/books?id=kSlPAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Lorna+Hill%22 Retrieved 1 April 2011.]</ref>

==Bibliography==
===''Marjorie'' series===
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
#Marjorie and Co (1948)
#Stolen Holiday (1948)
#Border Peel (1950, illustrated by the author's daughter under the name Esmé Verity)<ref>[http://lornahill.blogspot.com/2009/04/lorna-hill-1902-1991.html Retrieved 2 April 2011.]</ref>
#Northern Lights (1999, written in 1941 but not previously published)<ref>Australian book collectors' site: [http://www.collectingbooksandmagazines.com/hill.html Retrieved 1 April 2011.]</ref>
#Castle in Northumbria (1953)
#No Medals for Guy (1962)

===''Sadlers Wells'' series===
#A Dream of Sadlers Wells (1950)
#Veronica at the Wells (1951)
#Masquerade at the Wells (1952)
#No Castanets at the Wells (1953)
#Jane Leaves the Wells (1953)
#Ella at the Wells (1954)
#Return to the Wells (1955)
#Rosanna Joins the Wells (1956)
#Principal Rôle (1957)
#Swan Feather (1958)
#Dress-Rehearsal (1959)
#Back-Stage (1960)
#Vicki in Venice (1962)
#The Secret (1964)

===''Patience'' series===
#They Called Her Patience (1951)
#It Was All Through Patience (1952)
#So Guy Came Too (1954)
#The Five Shilling Holiday (1955)

===''Dancing Peel'' series===
#Dancing Peel (1954)
#Dancer's Luck (1955)
#The Little Dancer (1956)
#Dancer in the Wings (1958)
#Dancer in Danger (1960)
#Dancer on Holiday (1962)

===''The Vicarage Children'' series===
#The Vicarage Children (1961)
#More About Mandy (1963)
#The Vicarage Children in Skye (1966)

===Adult books===
#La Sylphide, The Life of Marie Taglioni (1967)
#The Scent of Rosemary (1978)
#The Other Miss Perkin (1978)
}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

===Sources===
*[http://www.collectingbooksandmagazines.com/hill.html Article on ''Lorna Hill''. Retrieved 27 October 2010.]
*[https://janebadgerbooks.co.uk/british-authors/hill-lorna Profile of ''Lorna Hill''. Retrieved 7 July 2024.]
*[http://www.booksellerworld.com/lornahill-bibliography.htm Short biography of ''Lorna Hill''. Retrieved 27 October 2010.]{{dead link|date=July 2024}} 

{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, Lorna}}
[[Category:1902 births]]
[[Category:1991 deaths]]
[[Category:English children's writers]]
[[Category:20th-century English novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century British women writers]]
[[Category:English women children's writers]]
[[Category:English women novelists]]
[[Category:Alumni of St Mary's College, Durham]]
[[Category:People from Matfen]]
[[Category:Writers from Northumberland]]