The Queen of the Pharisees' Children

Barbara Mary Willard (1909–1994) was a British author renowned for her children's historical fiction, particularly the Mantlemass Chronicles, a family saga spanning the 15th to 17th centuries set in Ashdown Forest, England. Born in Brighton to an acting family, she began as an actress and adult novelist before achieving success in children's literature with works like The Grove of Green Holly and the award-winning The Iron Lily (Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, 1974) and The Queen of the Pharisees' Children (Whitbread Award, 1984). Books For Keeps Obituary