Kathleen Hale OBE was a British artist, illustrator, and children's author.
12 Facts About Kathleen Hale
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Kathleen Hale is best remembered for her series of books about Orlando the Marmalade Cat.
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Kathleen Hale's father died when she was five and her mother decided to take over his job as travelling salesman for Chappell's pianos.
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Kathleen Hale's childhood was far from idyllic and she was forced to endure long periods of separation from her mother.
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Kathleen Hale moved to London in 1917, intending to make a life for herself as an artist.
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Kathleen Hale attended the Central School of Arts and Crafts.
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Kathleen Hale spent time in Paris in 1923, where she met the couple Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines.
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Kathleen Hale married Douglas McClean, a young doctor working in medical research, and they settled in Hertfordshire.
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Kathleen Hale created the marmalade cat Orlando and his world to entertain her children at bedtime, and in the late 1930s she began producing her series of books about him, among the earliest picture books produced using photolithography.
10.
Kathleen Hale was the castaway on Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 on 30 October 1994.
11.
Kathleen Hale was interviewed by Sue Lawley and chose the Catalan song "Cobla La Principal de Peralada" as well as pieces by Anton Karas, Gertrude Lawrence and Scott Joplin as her favourite records, Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time as her choice of book, and a djellaba made from golden cloth as her luxury item.
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Kathleen Hale died in Bristol on 26 January 2000, aged 101.