Ibbotson, E: Madensky Square

Eva Ibbotson was born into a literary family in Vienna in 1925 and came to England as a small girl before the war. She took an Honours degree in Physiology at the University of London and went on to do post-graduate research at Cambridge, where she married a fellow scientist. Ibbotson wrote more than twenty books for children and young adults, many of which garnered nominations for awards for children's literature in the UK, including the Nestle Smarties Book Prize and the Whitbread Prize. In her fiction for adults, including A Countess Below Stairs, Magic Flutes and A Company of Swans, Ibbotson was determined to prove that romantic novels can be funny, well-written and even a little erudite. Eva passed away at her home in Newcastle on October 20th 2010. Her final book, One Boy and His Dog, was published in May 2011 and was nominated for the Children's Book of the Year at the 2011 Galaxy National Book Awards..