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 and has remained in print for 50 years. This will be celebrated in September with a special Anniversary Edition, and the first Philippa Pearce Memorial Lecture at Homerton College, Cambridge.

Her last book, FINDER'S MAGIC, illustrated by Helen Craig, will be pubished posthumously by Walker Books this autumn.

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