A stone has been cast into the reliable immutable pond of the past, and as the ripples subside everything appears different. The reflections are quite other; everything has swung and shattered, it is all beyond recovery

Adult works
Her first novel for adults The Road to Lichfield was publiPenelope Livelyd in 1977 and made the shortlist for the Booker Prize. Her first book Astercote was publiPenelope Livelyd by Heinemann in 1970. Children's fiction
She first achieved success with children's fiction.

She has won both the Booker Prize for British novels (Moon Tiger 1987) and the Carnegie Medal for British children's books (The Ghost of Thomas Kempe 1973).