Mary Norton, also known as Kathleen Mary Norton, was a highly acclaimed children’s literature and fiction writer. She was born on December 10, 1903, in Leighton Buzzard, United Kingdom, and was the daughter of a physician. Norton was raised in a Georgian house at the end of the High Street in Leighton Buzzard, which later became the setting of her novel, The Borrowers.
Norton began her writing career while working for the British Purchasing Commission in New York during the Second World War. Her first book, The Magic Bed Knob; or, How to Become a Witch in Ten Easy Lessons, was published in 1943. The book, together with its sequel, Bonfires and Broomsticks, served as the basis for the Disney film Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Norton married Robert C. Norton in 1927 and had four children, two boys and two girls. After her husband's death, she married Lionel Boncey in 1970.
Mary Norton is best known for her The Borrowers series of low fantasy novels, which includes the first book, The Borrowers, published in 1952. The series is named after its first book and tells the story of tiny people who live secretly in the midst of contemporary human civilization. Norton won the 1952 Carnegie Medal from the Library Association for The Borrowers, recognizing it as the year's outstanding children's book by a British subject. In 2007, for the 70th anniversary of the Medal, it was named one of the top ten winning works, selected by a panel to compose the ballot for a public election of the all-time favorite. Norton passed away on August 29, 1992, in Devon, England, after suffering a stroke.