Born in Dublin in 1956 and brought up in Goatstown, Marita went to school at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Mount Anville, later working in the family business, the bank, and a travel agency. She has four children with her husband James, and they live in the Stillorgan area of Dublin.
Marita was always fascinated by the Famine period in Irish history and read everything available on the subject. When she heard a radio report of an unmarked children's grave from the Famine period being found under a hawthorn tree, she decided to write her first book, Under the Hawthorn Tree.
Published in May 1990, the book was an immediate success and become a classic. It has been translated into over a dozen languages, including Arabic, Bahasa, French, Dutch, German, Swedish, Italian, Japanese and Irish. The book has been read on RTÉ Radio and is very popular in schools, both with teachers and pupils. It has been made a supplementary curriculum reader in many schools and is also used by schools in Northern Ireland for EMU (Education through Mutual Understanding) projects. It was also filmed by Young Irish Film Makers, in association with RTÉ and Channel 4. This is available as a DVD.
Marita has written more books for children which were also very well received. The Blue Horse reached No. 1 on the Bestseller List and won the BISTO BOOK OF THE YEAR Award. No Goodbye, which tells of the heartbreak of a young family when their mother leaves home, was recommended by Book Trust in their guide for One Parent Families. Safe Harbour is the story of two English children evacuated from London during World War ll to live with their grandfather in Greystones, Co Wicklow and was shortlisted for the BISTO Book of the Year Award. A Girl Called Blue follows the life of an orphan, trying to find who she really is in a cold and strict orphanage. Marita has also explored the world of fantasy with her book In Deep Dark Wood.
Marita has won several awards, including the International Reading Association Award, the Osterreichischer Kinder und Jugendbuchpreis, the Reading Association of Ireland Award and the Bisto Book of the Year Award.
P. J. Lynch is the current Laureate na nÓg, Ireland’s Children’s Laureate. He has worked as a book illustrator since the 1980s. Millions of his books have been sold around the world and he has won many awards. His next book will be “Patrick and the President” written by Ryan Tubridy. In recent years PJ has designed posters for Opera Ireland and the Abbey Theatre as well as several sets of stamps for An Post. As well as illustrating books he has painted some very large murals including two on the theme of Gulliver’s Travels for the Cavan County Library, and he has recently designed Europe’s largest mosaic for the Marian Shrine in Knock, Co Mayo. It was unveiled in February 2016.
After many years illustrating other writers’ stories PJ finally published his own story, “The Boy Who Fell Off The Mayflower” in 2015, and his next book will be “Patrick and the President” written by the broadcaster Ryan Tubridy. PJ lives in Dublin with his wife Barbara and their three children, Ben, Sam and Evie.
