Elizabeth Arnold (children's writer)
| Elizabeth Arnold (children's writer) | |
|---|---|
| Born |
December 15, 1944 Leicester, United Kingdom |
| Occupation | Children’s author |
| Language | English |
| Alma mater | Open University |
| Genre | Children’s literature |
| Years active | 1995-present |
Susan Elizabeth Arnold (born 15 December 1944) is an English writer of children's fiction.
She was born in Leicester. Her family moved several times during her childhood. She was the eldest of five sisters, including triplets. Having left school at 15, she later took a City and Guilds course for science technicians, and eventually gained an Open University degree in science and technology. She now lives with her husband in Southampton. Her own favourite children's book is Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, which was " the first book I became truly aware of, from the age of about two. My father used to read it to me at bedtime."
Having worked for many years as a school science technician and a quality control manager, Elizabeth Arnold came to write The Parsley Parcel, her first novel, out of a love of folklore, and originally with adults in mind rather than children. Set among Gypsies in the New Forest, it was shortlisted for the Beefeater (Whitbread) Children's Book Award in 1995, appeared in paperback in 1996, and was reissued in 1998. An audio version read by Nerys Hughes also appeared in 1998, and it formed the basis for the seven-part Gypsy Girl ITV series in 2001. The main character is Freya, a Romany girl with benign magic powers, played on TV by Gemma Gregory, with Eleanor Bron as her great-grandmother. The Freya or Gypsy Girl Trilogy was completed with Gold and Silver Water, and A Riot of Red Ribbons.
Arnold has written about how she came to name her character: "Freya was a Romany child, and in ancient Romany culture a child had three names. A formal name; a pet or nickname, and a secret name. The secret name is whispered by a mother to her child only twice; at the moment of birth and once more when the child is old enough to remember.... I chose Freya as my heroine’s formal name. Freya, named after the goddess Freya born on Friday. This was important because in The Parsley Parcel, special magic would be worked on Good Friday. Her pet name was Chime. Why? Because she was a Chime-Child, a gypsy girl born with special powers to work special enchantments. Her secret name? It’s a secret, of course, that she and I will share forever."
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