Author of over thirty books for young readers and a dozen titles for adults, Jill Paton Walsh is noted for her works which deal realistically with life, death, and maturation. While her novels vary widely in terms of genre and style, Judith Atkinson of Twentieth-Century Children's Writers noted, "The most immediately attractive features of these novels . . . are their absorbing plots and believable settings." Sheila Egoff declared in Thursday's Child that, "Of [the many] skilled and sensitive writers [for young people], [Paton] Walsh is the most formally literary. Her writing is studded with allusions to poetry, art and philosophy that give it an intellectual framework unmatched in children's literature." Paton Walsh's works examine eras and topics such as life, death, and honor in Anglo-Saxon England (Hengest's Tale and Wordhoard), Victorian child labor in England (A Chance Child), growing up in World War II England (The Dolphin Crossing and Fireweed...