Jane Gardam

1928–2025

English writer of fiction for adults and children. Born in Coatham, Yorkshire, she grew up in Cumberland and the North Riding and read English at Bedford College, London. Her first book, the children’s novel A Long Way From Verona, appeared in 1971. She won the Whitbread Children’s Book Award for The Hollow Land and the Whitbread Novel Award for The Queen of the Tambourine, and later wrote a trilogy beginning with Old Filth. She was appointed OBE in 2009 and died in Chipping Norton in April 2025. God on the Rocks was shortlisted for the 1978 Booker Prize.

Timeline of Jane Gardam’s life

Works

Prizes