Pamela Kay Allen MNZM AM (née Griffiths; born 3 April 1934) is a New Zealand children's writer and illustrator.
Born in the Auckland suburb of Devonport in 1934 to Esma Eileen (née Griffith) and William Ewart Griffiths,[1][2] Allen studied at St Cuthbert's College,[3] then the Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland, from where she graduated with a Diploma of Fine Arts in 1955.
[11] She twice won the Ethel Turner Prize in the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, in 1980 for Mr Archimedes' Bath[5] and 1983 for Who Sank the Boat?.
[12] Allen was awarded the International Board on Books for Young People honour diploma for illustration, for Who Sank the Boat?, in 1984.
[11][15] Allen returned to live in Auckland and in 2004 she won the Margaret Mahy Medal, New Zealand's top children's literature prize.