Eileen Gibb

Eileen Mabel Gibb (3 August 1911 – 2003) was a British author best known for writing the Sammy the Shunter series of books.

During the Second World War Gibb was secretary to the art historian and National Gallery director Kenneth Clark, and this introduced her to a wide variety of friends in artistic and writing circles including Henry Moore, Stanley Spencer and Philip Larkin.

[4] Gibb had two children, her daughter commenting: "I think this exposure to so much railway stuff must have fired mum's imagination to produce her stories".

][2][3] Sammy the Shunter is a fictional anthropomorphic steam locomotive character created by Eileen Gibb, featuring in a series of children's books published in the 1940s and 1950s.

Sammy is depicted as a 2-4-2T locomotive, painted red with green wheels and a yellow dome who lives in the fictional town of Sleeping Sunbury in England.

[1] Two untitled series of four plywood c 30 piece jigsaws 5 3/4" x 7 3/4" featuring Sammy were produced in the 1950s by High Spot.