Lorna Hill was born in 1902 in Durham, She went to Durham High School for Girls and then attended Le Manoir, a finishing school in Lausanne, Switzerland. She gained a BA in English Literature at Durham University in 1926, and there met her husband, the clergyman V. R. Hill (Dick). They were married in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1928, and moved to the remote parish of Matfen, Northumberland, where she played the organ in church and ran a Sunday school.
Hill’s career as an author began when she wrote a story for her daughter Vicki who was about 10 and enjoyed it so much that she asked for more about its characters. The result was to become what we know as the Marjorie and Patience series.
When Vicki left home to be a ballet student at Sadler’s Wells in London, Lorna Hill began to write her Sadler’s Wells series. Eventually, Vicki was to illustrate the last few titles in the Sadler’s Wells’ series as well as the Dancing Peel series, under the name of Esmé Verity.
Lorna Hill eventually moved to Keswick, Cumbria, where she died on 17 August 1991. Vicki took a great interest in the republishing of Lorna Hill’s books by GGBP and wrote many introductions for us. (For details about which Lorna Hill titles have been published by GGBP please see All Books ever Published and look under Current Authors.) Vicki died on 16th July 2018.
Please note that Jane Leaves the Wells will be published between in October 2024.
