Barbara Leonie Picard
British children's writer
Barbara Leonie Picard (17 December 1917 – 15 December 2011) was a British writer of children's books, best known for historical fiction and for retellings of ancient myths and medieval legends. Her works were meticulously researched. She also wrote original fairy tales. Three of her books were commended runners up for the annual British Carnegie Medal, one collection of her fairy tales and two historical novels.
Biography
Picard was born in Richmond-upon-Thames, a borough of London, and lived for some time in a rented cottage outside Seaford, East Sussex, with her mother. Her mother was raised in Venezuela, moved to Britain, and married a French soldier who had been sent to London as a consul. The marriage faltered early and Picard saw her father only fleetingly as a child. Although Picard was raised by her mother, her father supported the family and wrote to her all his life.
Educated by a governess until the age of nine, Picard was not acquainted with children until she went to prep school. She had three happy years until she was placed in a boarding school in Berkshire where she made no friends.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4859094. VIAF identifies the subject as 5209749. The Library of Congress control number is n50019705. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1917 and 2011.
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This entry incorporates text from “Barbara Leonie Picard” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.