Mary Norton (writer)

[1] She is best known for The Borrowers series of low fantasy novels (1952 to 1982), which is named after its first book and, in turn, the tiny people who live secretly in the midst of contemporary human civilisation.

Norton won the 1952 Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising The Borrowers as the year's outstanding children's book by a British author.

[2] For the 70th anniversary of the Medal in 2007 it was named one of the top 10 winning works, selected by a panel to compose the ballot for a public election of the all-time favourite.

Kathleen Mary Pearson was the daughter of a physician and grew up in a Georgian house at the end of the High Street in Leighton Buzzard.

[1] Norton began working for the British War Office in 1940 before the family moved temporarily to the United States.

'The Cedars', Norton's home until 1921 and reputedly the setting of The Borrowers
"Borrowers' Cottage" in Hartland , North Devon, where Norton spent her final years living with her second husband, Lionel Bonsey
Mary Norton's final resting place in the graveyard of St. Nectan's Church , the parish church of Hartland, Devon . The inscription on the headstone reads:
"Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumnal rain.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die".
(Extract from a poem by Claire Harner .)