Cynthia Harnett's unique contribution to children's literature relied on her ability to combine her talents for drawing and writing with an intense interest and absorption in British history. She won the Carnegie Medal in 1951 for The Wool-Pack, one of a series of major works involving the lives of ordinary people during significant historical periods. Her stories are the result of intensive scholarship and extensive research into all facets of daily life.

Cynthia Mary Harnett was born on 22 June 1893 in Kensington. The daughter of William O'Sullivan and Clara (Stokes) Harnett, she was educated at private schools and studied to be an artist, first at the Chelsea School of Art and later with her cousin, the artist and writer G. Vernon Stokes. During the 1930s they began a successful collaboration that produced several picture books about country life. In spite of their work with the censorship department, they continued to...