12 Facts About Kaye Webb

Kaye Webb has been called an "enormously influential children's editor" and "brilliant as an innovator of highly successful marketing strategies".

Kaye Webb was awarded the Eleanor Farjeon Award in 1970.

Kathleen Webb was born in Chiswick, London, in 1914, the second of three children of Arthur Webb, a journalist, and Ann, a film and theatre critic.

Kaye Webb was educated first at a dame school, then at Hornsey High School, and then, in 1926, aged twelve, started boarding at Ashburton School, Ashburton, Devon, where her older brother was already a student.

Kaye Webb left the school in 1930, and although Gibbs had suggested that she go on to university, she was sent by her parents to stay with a family in Bruges, Belgium, to be "finished".

Kaye Webb later worked for motor magazines Caravan World and Sports Car.

Kaye Webb joined Picture Post as a secretary in 1938; and in 1941 became assistant editor of the magazine Lilliput.

Kaye Webb remained at Lilliput until her marriage in 1948, after which she began working freelance, writing features for the News Chronicle and broadcasting on Woman's Hour, among other commissions.

Kaye Webb had almost complete autonomy over what Puffin published.

Kaye Webb preferred publishing texts with complex and sophisticated writing, and emphasised "fantasy and pleasure".

Kaye Webb was a castaway on Desert Island Discs in 1993.

Kaye Webb was married three times: each of her marriages ended in divorce.