The High House

Honor Arundel Author profile：

born in The United Kingdom January 01, 1919

diedJanuary 01, 1973

genderfemale

genreChildren's Books, Nonfiction, Poetry

About this author ：

British novelist for children and young adults, critic, playwright, poet, editor, and journalist.

Arundel's novels for young people have earned her a reputation as an author sensitive to the conflict between responsibility to oneself and responsibility to others that many adolescent girls find difficult to resolve. She began writing novels for teenagers when her daughter complained about the lack of stories about "ordinary children … with real problems" with whom they could identify. Many critics and readers have appreciated Arundel's honesty in describing predicaments that have no easy resolution in life, but she has been criticized for portraying young women who are so closely tied to their families that they lack realistic aspirations outside of family life as well as the confidence necessary to achieve them.

The strong sense of place in Arundel's books, most of which are set in Edinburgh or in the south country of Scotland, testifies to her knowledge and love of the two places she called home.

Her last book, The Blanket Word, which tells of a teenaged daughter's response to her mother's fatal illness, was written while she herself was dying of cancer.