| Sheila K. McCullagh | |
| Birth Name: | Sheila Kathleen McCullagh (MBE) |
| Birth Place: | Surrey, England, United Kingdom |
| Birth Date: | 3 December 1920 |
| Death Place: | Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, England, United Kingdom |
| Death Date: | 7 July 2014 (aged 93) |
| Occupation: | Author |
Sheila Kathleen McCullagh MBE (3 December 1920 – 7 July 2014) was a British author of children's literature.[1]
McCullagh was born in Surrey, her work was first published in the 1950s, when she was working as a lecturer at Leeds University.[2] From 1958 to 1963 she taught at a teacher's college in London, Ontario before taking up writing full time.[3] She went on to write many children's fantasy and educational books, the Puddle Lane series being among the most popular and successful.[4] A television adaptation of the book series starred and featured original music by Neil Innes.[5]
McCullagh spent many years lecturing in Canada and travelled to most corners of the globe, including travel to the Antarctic with Keith Shackleton and Peter Scott.[6] She was also a devout Anglican.
During her career she wrote over 300 titles. In 2006 she signed a deal with the publisher Mercury Junior to bring her books back into print.[7]
After many years in Cornwall and then retirement in Bath, where she lived with her partner Lois for 20 years, McCullagh moved to a care facility in Wiltshire. Her health had been in decline for some years. She died on 7 July 2014 in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, aged 93.[8]
The Story People characters from The Village with Three Corners (also known as 1,2,3 and Away!) such as Roger Red-hat, Billy Blue-hat, Johnny and Jennifer Yellow-hat are being used in the I Can Read Without You (ICRWY) Project from The Reading Hut Ltd as 'transition readers' - to bridge the gap between reading 'decodable readers' and 'authentic texts'. A limited series is being published by The Reading Hut Ltd, current copyright holders. 123andAway.com