Kathleen Hale author page

Kathleen Hale biography

Kathleen Hale OBE was a British artist, illustrator and children’s author best known for the Orlando (the Marmalade Cat) picture-book series. Trained in the arts in London, she developed a distinctive approach to colour lithography that helped shape mid-twentieth-century children’s illustration.

The Orlando books appeared from 1938 to 1972 with publishers including Country Life, Puffin and Frederick Warne. The first title, Orlando (the Marmalade Cat): A Camping Holiday (1938), introduced Orlando, his adventures and Hale’s detailed, decorative spreads. In 1941 Puffin issued Orlando’s Evening Out, the imprint’s first fictional picture book, and further volumes followed, among them Orlando Goes to the Moon and Orlando and the Water Cats (1972).

Hale’s work has been reprinted repeatedly, with later UK editions and reissues keeping the series available to new readers. Her illustrative technique and design have been cited by children’s-literature reference works for raising production standards in picture books.

She was appointed OBE in 1976.