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K M Peyton


(Kathleen Wendy Herald Peyton)
UK flag (1929 - 2023)

aka Kathleen Herald

Kathleen Wendy Herald Peyton, who wrote as K.M. Peyton was a British author. She wrote more than fifty novels, including the much loved Flambards series and its sequels for which she won both the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Award.

She began writing when she was nine, first publishing when she was fifteen under her maiden name of Kathleen Herald; she 'never decided to become a writer...[she]...just was one'. Though she couldn't own a horse (she grew up in London), she was obsessed with them: all her early books are about girls who have ponies. After school, she went to Kingston Art School then Manchester Art School. There she met a another student, Mike Peyton (an ex-serviceman who had been a prisoner of war), who shared her love of walking in the Pennines. They married when she was twenty-one and went travelling around Europe.

When they returned to Britain, Peyton completed a teaching diploma. However, after the birth of her second daughter, she turned to writing fulltime: mostly boy's adventure stories which she sold in serialised form to The Scout magazine, and then published in full. This was when Peyton began writing under K.M. Peyton: the 'M' was her husband Mike who helped create the plots.

The Peytons loved sailing, and her first books were on that subject; soon however, she returned to her 'first love', horses, and began to write what became the Flambards series. When Peyton became involved with horse racing, she used those experiences as further inspiration for writing.
 

Awards: Carnegie (1970)

Genres: Young Adult Fantasy
 
Series
Flambards
   1. Flambards (1968)
   2. The Edge of the Cloud (1969)
   3. Flambards in Summer (1969)
   4. Flambards Divided (1981)
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Ruth Hollis
   1. Fly-by-night (1968)
   2. The Team (1975)
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Pennington
   1. Pennington's Seventeenth Summer (1970)
     aka Pennington's Last Term
   2. The Beethoven Medal (1971)
     aka If I Ever Marry
   3. Pennington's Heir (1973)
   4. Marion's Angels (1979)
     aka Falling Angels
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Jonathan Meredith
   1. Prove Yourself a Hero (1977)
   2. A Midsummer Night's Death (1978)
   3. The Last Ditch (1983)
     aka Free Rein
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High Horse
   1. The Swallow Tale (1995)
   2. Swallow Summer (1996)
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Gains
   1. Small Gains (2003)
   2. Greater Gains (2005)
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Roman Pony Trilogy
   1. Minnas Quest (2007)
   2. No Turning Back (2008)
   3. Far from Home (2009)
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Novels
   Sabre the Horse from the Sea (1948) (as by Kathleen Herald)
   The Mandrake (1949) (as by Kathleen Herald)
   Crab the Roan (1953) (as by Kathleen Herald)
   North to Adventure (1958)
   Stormcock Meets Trouble (1961)
   The Hard Way Home (1962)
   Sea Fever (1963)
     aka Windfall
   Brownsea Silver (1964)
   The Maplin Bird (1964)
   Sing a Song of Ambush (1964)
   The Plan for Birdsmarsh (1965)
   Thunder in the Sky (1966)
   A Pattern of Roses (1972)
   So Once Was I (1976)
   The Right-Hand Man (1977)
   Dear Fred (1981)
   Going Home (1982)
   Who, Sir? Me, Sir? (1983)
   Froggett's Revenge (1985)
   The Sound of Distant Cheering (1986)
   Plain Jack (1988)
   Downhill All the Way (1988)
   Skylark (1989)
   Darkling (1989)
   No Roses Round the Door (1990)
   Poor Badger (1990)
   Late to Smile (1992)
   The Boy Who Wasn't There (1992)
   The Wild Boy and Queen Moon (1993)
   Snowfall (1994)
   Mr. Brown (1995)
   The Pony That Went to Sea (1997)
   Windy Webley (1997)
   Unquiet Spirits (1997)
   Swallow the Star (1998)
   Danger Offshore (1998)
   Firehead (1998)
   The Scruffy Pony (1999)
   The Pied Piper (1999)
   Blind Beauty (1999)
   The Paradise Pony (1999)
   Pony in the Dark (2001)
   My Alice (2006)
   Blue Skies and Gunfire (2006)
   Paradise House (2011)
   All That Glitters... (2014)
   Wild Lily (2016)
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Collections
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Series contributed to
Shock Shop
   Stealaway (2001)
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Picture Books show
 
Non fiction show
 


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