Eleanor Farjeon

She is probably best known for writing the hymn "Morning has Broken" (1931) based on an old Gaelic tune. Cat Stevens also popularized this song. In children's literature she is best known for her collection of short stories "The Little Bookroom" (1955). I have read this charming book of original folktales many times and given away copies as gifts. It won the Carnegie Medal that year and is still in print. I just discovered another series of stories by researching her at the library computer. "Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard" (1921) and "Martin Pippin in the Daisy Field" (1937). I'm on page 87 in the apple orchard, but the writing is so fine I recommend it to almost anyone.  Her storytelling and descriptions are clarity for the imagination.  Here's one passage from "Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard". Some background:  Martin Pippin is a wandering minstrel and in this story he tells of shepherd, Young Gerard, who discovers a runaway girl near the shed where he sleeps. She's wet, so he invites her in to dry by the fire.  The burning wood arranged like a castle...

And they watched the fire together, and smelled its smoke, that
had as many smells as there were sorts of wood. Sometimes it was
like roast coffee, and sometimes like roast chestnuts, and some-
times like incense. And they saw the lichen on old stumps crinkle
into golden ferns, or fire run up a dead tail of creeper in a red S,
and vanish in mid-air like an Indian boy climbing a rope, or crawl
right through the middle of a birch-twig, making hieroglyphics
that glowed and faded between the grey scales of the bark. And
then suddenly it caught the whole scaffolding of their castle, and
blazed up through the fir and oak and spiny thorns and dead
leaves, and the bits of old bark all over blue-grey-green rot, and
the young sprigs almost budding, and hissing with sap. And for
one moment they saw all the skeleton and soul of the castle with-
out its body, before it fell in. (page 71)

Both Martin Pippin books are considered classics and are still in print. I highly recommend checking them out from the library and researching other books by Eleanor Farjeon...especially "The Little Bookroom". I plan to buy copies of both Martin Pippin books. You never know what may resonate with your life...