Alison Uttley: Spinner of Tales

The authorised biography of the creator of Little Grey Rabbit

By (author) Denis Judd

Publication date:

09 June 2010

Length of book:

320 pages

Publisher

Manchester University Press

Dimensions:

216x138mm

ISBN-13: 9780719084560

Little Grey Rabbit and Sam Pig are just two of the inspired characters created by Alison Uttley, loved by millions and still very popular today. But who was the real woman spinning enchanting tales of country life and lore, magic and friendship?

Alison Uttley gathered much of the inspiration for her stories from the fond memories of her Derbyshire childhood and her love of the countryside. A talented and prolific writer, she was still producing stories in her late eighties. Yet she was often plagued by self-doubt, and extremely possessive over her close friends, family and work. Tragically, Alison's husband committed suicide before her writing successes. She soon developed a smothering relationship with her only child John, even convincing him to jilt his first fiancée and escape to Scotland - the honeymoon destination.

With exclusive and unrestricted access to her personal diaries and private letters, Denis Judd paints an intriguing portrait of one of the most successful, creative and troubled children's authors of modern times.

Introduction
1. The Snow Baby
2. Castle Top Farm
3. The Country Child
4. Lea Board School
5. The Grammar School Girl
6. Manchester University
7. Going South: Cambridge and London
8. Marriage and Motherhood
9. Frustrated Housewife and Aspiring Author
10. The Making of The Country Child and Little Grey Rabbit
11. Tragedy
12. Living Alone
13. Making Progress
14. Wanting to Move
15. Beaconsfield in Wartime
16. Much Fame, A Modest Fortune and Great Anxiety
17. Bereft Mother and Prolific Author
18. Seventy Years Old, But Still Going Strong
19. Dropping into Old Age?
20. Joyous, Despite the Mounting Years
21. Full of Honours
22. Last Years
Endnotes

Anyone who grew up with the stories of the Squirrel, the Hare and the Little Grey Rabbit - books the Queen read to her children, six million copies sold in the first thirty yeaS - will be enchanted to learn their secret, which is that all three characters were self-portraits ... as Denis Judd makes clear in this fascinating biography.

Little was known about Alison Uttley until the welcome arrival of this authorised biography

Denis Judd has written a very full and enthralling biography of Alison Uttley.

He shows Alison Uttley as a self-deluding romantic, a shrewd and quarrelsome businesswoman and a compulsive housekeeper, patching and jam-making in an heroically untidy kitchen ... it is impossible not to think of her as a sorceress, a storyteller whose tales were produced only at mortal cost.