I have long been interested in landscape history, and when younger and more robust I used to do much tramping of the English landscape in search of ancient field systems, drove roads, indications of prehistoric settlement.

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).