Barbara C. Freeman
Encyclopedia
Biography
Barbara Constance Freeman was born on 29 November 1906 in EalingEaling
Ealing is a suburban area of west London, England and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Ealing. It is located west of Charing Cross and around from the City of London. It is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically a rural village...
, near London. She attended the Tiffin Girls' School
Tiffin Girls' School
The Tiffin Girls' School is an all girls grammar school located in Kingston upon Thames, south-west London, England. The school lies in over nine acres on the east side of Richmond Road.-History:...
in Kingston upon Thames
Kingston upon Thames
Kingston upon Thames is the principal settlement of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in southwest London. It was the ancient market town where Saxon kings were crowned and is now a suburb situated south west of Charing Cross. It is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the...
in Surrey and later studied at the Kingston School of Art.
She illustrated many books by other writers, including The Treasure Hunters by Enid Blyton, and many collections of fairy tales, both traditional tales by Grimm and Andersen and modern stories. Some of her earliest illustrations are found in The Cuckoo Book (1942), a book of fairy tales by Edith Mary Bell. She also contributed to comics, including Playhour
Playhour
Playhour was a British children's comic published between 16 October 1954 and 15 August 1987, a run of approximately 1,700 weekly issues....
, and to annuals, such as, Blackie's Children's Annual 1934.
By the 1960s she had begun writing and illustrating her own books for children and young adults. Some have a touch of fantasy: in Two-thumb Thomas the eponymous hero is raised by school cats; in Broom-Adelaide, a fox rides a flying broomstick. Some, including Lucinda and The Name on the Glass, are set in the past, while in others, such as A Book by Georgina and The Other Face, the lives of the main characters are interwoven with history.
Her artwork is both clean-cut and winsome: an unmistakable style. Some of her illustrations are still in print as posters and art prints.