Eleanor Farjeon (1881-1965) was a British author of children's stories and plays, poetry, biography, history and satire. She lived much of her life among the literary and theatrical circles of London, and her friends included D H Lawrence, Walter de la Mare and Robert Frost. She won many literary awards and the prestigious Eleanor Farjeon Award for children's literature is presented annually in her memory by the Children's Book Circle.

"'She is one of the few who can conceive and tell a fairytale ... Before I had read five pages of Martin Pippin, I had forgotten who I was and where I lived. I was transported into a world of sunlight, of gay inconsequence, of emotional surprise, a world of poetry, delight and humour. And I lived and took my joy in that rare world, until all too soon my reading was done.' From J. D. Beresford's Foreword to the first American edition of 1922."