Philippa Pearce died on 21st December 2006, aged 86, after a short illness.
In l997 she was awarded the O.B.E. for her services to children’s literature.

Her book, TOM’S MIDNIGHT GARDEN, “a classic in the front rank of children’s literature” (TWENTIETH CENTURY CHILDREN’S WRITERS), won the Carnegie Medal in 1958 and has remained in print ever since. In 2008 this was celebrated with a special 50th Anniversary Edition, and the first
Philippa Pearce Memorial Lecture at Homerton College, Cambridge www.pearcelecture.com.

Her last book, FINDER'S MAGIC, illustrated by Helen Craig, was published posthumously by Walker Books in 2008.

Until her death she lived near Cambridge, opposite the house where she spent her childhood and which features in Tom’s Midnight Garden.

"Pearce's artistry lay in her ability to see with a child's eye and convey the intense emotions and enlarged perceptions of childhood” TIMES OBITUARY

"To the end, and not only in her fiction, she had an innate wisdom and generous spirit that reached out to life” GUARDIAN OBITUARY