Hilda Gerarda van Stockum (9 February 1908 – 1 November 2006) was a Dutch-born children's writer and artist.

The book is based on letters Hilda received from relatives in the Netherlands, and has been praised for conveying an accurate sense of life under Nazi occupation.

She has achieved a degree of fame in this regard in Ireland, and was elected to the Honorary Council of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1983.

Van Stockum was a granddaughter of Charles Boissevain, editor of the Algemeen Handelsblad, an influential Dutch newspaper.

She married Ervin Ross Marlin, a friend of her brother, mathematician Willem Jacob van Stockum in 1932.