Eva Ibbotson

About

Remembered for such acclaimed children's novels as The Abominables, Which Witch?, and Journey to the River Sea, she also wrote such bestselling works for adults as A Song for Summer and The Morning Gift.

Before Fame

A native of Vienna, Austria, she grew up as Eva Maria Charlotte Michelle Wiesner and was the daughter of a writer and a doctor. Born into a Jewish family, she was forced to flee Austria in the 1930s as a result of the strengthening Nazi regime.

Trivia

Journey to the Sea, a work of historical young adult fiction, earned her the 2001 Smarties Prize.

Family Life

She met Alan Ibbotson, an entomologist and the man who would become her husband, while both were students at Cambridge University. The couple later raised four children.

Associated With

Her mother, Anna Gmeyner, was a notable dramatist, screenwriter, and novelist who, at one point, collaborated with the renowned German playwright Bertolt Brecht.