14 Facts About Jill Murphy

Jill Murphy was a British author and illustrator of children's books.

Jill Murphy was called "one of the most engaging writers and illustrators for children in the land".

Jill Murphy showed an interest in writing and drawing at the age of 6; 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.

Jill Murphy 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.

Jill Murphy grew up as a Roman Catholic, but she did not practise the faith in later years.

Jill Murphy's stay-at-home mother was a "book maniac" and her father was an Irish engineer.

Jill Murphy 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.

Jill Murphy said she was "thrilled to find the publishers were quirky like me", as she further revealed in an interview with The Telegraph: "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".

Jill Murphy was known for picture books, especially the Large Family series, which detail the domestic chaos of an elephant family.

Jill Murphy wrote Dear Hound, about a deerhound who goes missing after a storm and the quest for his owners to find him.

Jill Murphy was married and divorced twice, first to Peter Wilks, then to potter Roger Michell.

Jill Murphy's son Charlie was born in 1990, from her second marriage.

Jill Murphy lived in St Mabyn, Cornwall, where she died in hospital from cancer on 18 August 2021, aged 72.

In 2007, Jill Murphy received an honorary fellowship from University College Falmouth.