Ursula Williams author page

Ursula Moray Williams biography

Ursula Moray Williams was an English children’s author and illustrator. She was born in Petersfield, Hampshire on 19 April 1911 and died on 17 October 2006 in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire.

She and her twin sister Barbara began writing and illustrating books for each other from an early age. Their childhood included home education by a governess, experiences in the French Alps, and later attendance at Winchester College of Art—though Ursula left art college after a year to devote herself to writing.

Her first published book was Jean-Pierre, issued in 1931 when she was twenty, set in the Haute-Savoie region of France. Over her lifetime she produced nearly seventy books for children, many illustrated by herself as well as by artists including Edward Ardizzone, Shirley Hughes and Faith Jaques.

Williams is perhaps best known for Adventures of the Little Wooden Horse (1938) and Gobbolino, the Witch’s Cat (1942). The Good Little Christmas Tree first appeared in 1943. These stories often feature animals or toys undergoing trials and seeking belonging.

Her works also include the “Toymakers” sequence—The Three Toymakers, Malkin’s Mountain, and The Toymaker’s Daughter—which draw on her early experiences in the Alps and as a child growing up in Hampshire.

She married Conrad Southey “Peter” John in 1935; they had four sons. Williams continued writing into old age and published books until she was eighty.