Elizabeth, also a good German speaker with a degree in languages, meanwhile did war work in the WRNS.Īfter the war, they were reunited and married, and in 1950 they bought the Hampstead house together with Jerry's mother, his sister Beta and her husband Chris (the two men had met in the P.O.W. Jerry, who had studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Oxford University, spent most of the war in a prisoner-of-war camp where his knowledge of German earned him the position of an interpreter. Her parents, sister and their pet cat Geoffrey lived on the ground floor, an aunt and uncle (and later their children, James and Kate) on the first floor and her grandmother on the second floor.ĭonaldson's parents, James (always known as Jerry) and Elizabeth, met shortly before the Second World War, which then separated them for six years. The family occupied a Victorian three-storey house near Hampstead Heath. Life and career Childhood ĭonaldson was born and brought up in Hampstead, London, with her younger sister Mary. The remaining 120 are intended for school use and include her Songbirds phonic reading scheme, which is part of the Oxford University Press's Oxford Reading Tree.

Of her 184 published works, 64 are widely available in bookshops. She originally wrote songs for children's television but has concentrated on writing books since the words of one of her songs, 'A Squash and a Squeeze', were made into a children's book in 1993. She is best known for her popular rhyming stories for children, especially those illustrated by Axel Scheffler, which include The Gruffalo, Room on the Broom and Stick Man.

Julia Catherine Donaldson CBE ( née Shields born 16 September 1948) is an English writer and playwright, and the 2011–2013 Children's Laureate. From the BBC programme Desert Island Discs, 15 November 2009.

Gruffalo in room on the broom