Book of Queens

by William Mayne (Editor), Victor G. Ambrus (Illustrator)

First published in Great Britain as The Hamish Hamilton Book of Queens.

Even as a small girl, Eleanor Farjeon realized that there were two sorts of Queens -- the Queens of History, forerunners of the plump Queen Victoria who sat on the English throne at the time, and the Queens of fairy tale.

This elegant collection, assembled by Eleanor Farjeon and her friend and fellow Queen-maker William Mayne, contains distinguished ladies of both sorts. The cavalcade of historical Queens is a proud one: the illustrious Queen of Sheba; Cleopatra, Queen of Ancient Egypt; the tragic young Queen Magdalen of Scotland; Elizabeth I of England, who boasted of her King's heart; and poor unhappy Marie Antoinette of France, with her untimely offer of cake to the hungry crowd. The other Queens have sprung from the imagination of such masters of storytelling as Walter de la Mare, the Brothers Grimm, Andrew Lang, Mary de Morgan, and Eleanor Farjean and William Mayne themselves.

This companion volume to A Cavalcade of Kings has been chosen with the originality and skill for which its two compilers are well known, and like the earlier book it includes entertaining notes on the authors represented. The striking illustrations are by Victor Ambrus.

243 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

William Mayne was a British writer of children's fiction. Born in Hull, he was educated at the choir school attached to Canterbury Cathedral and his memories of that time contributed to his early books. He lived most of his life in North Yorkshire.

He was described as one of the outstanding children's authors of the 20th Century by the Oxford Companion to Children's Literature, and won the Carnegie Medal in 1957 for A Grass Rope and the Guardian Award in 1993 for Low Tide. He has written more than a hundred books, and is best known for his Choir School quartet comprising A Swarm in May, Choristers' Cake, Cathedral Wednesday and Words and Music, and his Earthfasts trilogy comprising Earthfasts, Cradlefasts and Candlefasts, an unusual evocation of the King Arthur legend.

A Swarm in May was filmed by the Children's Film Unit in 1983 and a five-part television series of Earthfasts was broadcast by the BBC in 1994.

William Mayne was imprisoned for two and a half years in 2004 after admitting to charges of child sexual abuse and was placed on the British sex offenders' register. His books were largely removed from shelves, and he died in disgrace in 2010.