Jill Murphy

Jill Murphy (born 5 July 1949) is an English writer and illustrator of children's books, best known for the Worst Witch novels and the "Large Family" picture books. She has been called "one of the most engaging writers and illustrators for children in the land".

Born in London, Murphy showed an interest in writing and drawing at the age of six; although not excelling in other school subjects, she had made her own enormous library of hand-written and illustrated books while still at primary school. She enjoyed reading boarding-school stories, which provided material and inspiration for Miss Cackle's Academy in the Worst Witch series, as did the Ursuline High School, Wimbledon, which she attended. She grew up a Roman Catholic, but she is no longer practising. Her stay-at-home mother was a "book maniac" and her father was an Irish engineer.

Murphy started to write The Worst Witch while still at school, but put the book on hold while she attended Chelsea and Croydon Art Schools. She continued to write it during a year living in a village in Togo, West Africa, and later while working as a nanny back in the UK. After receiving rejection letters from publishers to whom she offered the book (as she recalls, "They said children would be frightened about a school for witches..."), in 1970 when she was 24 she decided to try the new young company Allison and Busby. "They accepted it immediately, and printed 5,000 copies, and I remember wondering how many aunts and uncles I had, and what we would do with the rest," she said in an interview with The Telegraph. However, the book proved an instant success, selling out within two months of publication. Murphy continued working as a nanny until the publication in 1980 of The Worst Witch Strikes Again prompted her to devote herself to writing full-time.

She gave birth to her son Charlie in spring 1990.

In 1986, a television movie with the same title as her fantasy novel premiered on HBO. It later aired on The Disney Channel during the 1990s around the time of Halloween.

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