Mary Treadgold (16 April 1910 – 14 May 2005) was an English author of books for children and adults, a literary editor and a BBC producer.
[2] After leaving university, Treadgold entered publishing, working first for Raphael Tuck & Sons and later at Heinemann's as their first children's editor.
She began We Couldn't Leave Dinah while confined to an air raid shelter during the Battle of Britain between September and December 1940.
Of the twenty years she spent at the BBC, eleven were as literary editor of Books to Read, before she eventually left to concentrate on her writing.
[3][4] Marcus Crouch described it as "perhaps the most delightful book by a most talented writer" and as making "an effective contribution to the race question because there is no mention of it.