Jill Murphy

Born in London, Murphy showed an interest in writing and drawing at the age of six;[2] 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. She 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.[3] She grew up a Roman Catholic, but she is no longer practising.[4] Her stay-at-home mother was a "book maniac" and her father was an Irish engineer.[5]

Murphy started to write The Worst Witch — "the magical tale of an accident-prone girl attempting to navigate the magical codes and murky corridors of Miss Cackle’s Academy for Witches"[4] — while still at school, but put the book on hold while she attended Chelsea and Croydon Art Schools.[6] She 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. After receiving rejection letters from publishers to whom she offered the book (as she recalls, "They said children would be frightened about a school for witches..."),[7] in 1970 when she was 21 she decided to try the new young company Allison and Busby,[8][9] and, she says, was "thrilled to find the publishers were quirky like me".[4] "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," she said in an interview with The Telegraph.[10] However, the book proved an instant success, selling out within two months of publication in 1974.[11] Murphy continued working as a nanny until the publication in 1980 of The Worst Witch Strikes Again prompted her to devote herself to writing full-time.[3]

In 1986, a television film with the same title as her fantasy novel premiered on ITV. It later aired on The Disney Channel during the 1990s around the time of Halloween.

The Worst Witch stories have become some of the most successful titles on the Young Puffin paperback list and have sold more than three million copies.[12] They were also made into a successful 1986 film and an ITV series, airing on CITV between 1998 and 2001.

Murphy is also known for picture books, especially the "Large Family" series, which detail the domestic chaos of an elephant family. First published in 1986, Five Minutes Peace has sold more than five million copies worldwide and has been translated into 19 languages.[13] For the second book, All in One Piece (1987), she was a commended runner-up for the Greenaway Medal from the British Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject (the second of her two commendations).[14][lower-alpha 1] The "Large Family" is now a TV series on CBeebies and ABC Kids. In 1996 The Last Noo-Noo was adapted as a play and performed at the Polka Theatre, London.[3]

Murphy also wrote Dear Hound (2010), about a deerhound who goes missing after a storm and the quest for his owners to find him.[15]