She has also written several novels that center on the Cornish coast, where she spent part of her childhood, as well as award-winning adult novels such as
Knowledge of Angels and
A Desert in Bohemia that feature not only penetrating and gripping plot lines, but also philosophical inquiry and subtle characterizations.
Paton Walsh was born Gillian Bliss, a member of a loving family living in suburban London, in 1937. However, she entered the world only with difficulty, being a breech birth. Pulled violently from the womb, her right arm was permanently damaged, and there was fear that there might have been brain damage, as well, an anxiety exacerbated by the fact that Paton Walsh did not begin speaking until she was well over two years old. However, when she began, the toddler spoke full sentences. As she wrote in an essay for the Something about the Author Autobiography Series (SAAS), "Looking back, I am not surprised that I was chary of talking until I had got the grammar straight in my head, for my entire family made a nonstop game .
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