Mahy died in Christchurch on 23 July 2012, aged 76. Margaret Mahy 's books have been translated into more than fifteen languages. Besides this, she twice won the prestigious Carnegie Medal, ('The Haunting', 1982, and 'The Changeover' 1984) In the States too, her books are rapturously received, several having been chosen as ALA Notables and Best Books of the Year. Margaret published well over a hundred titles and won several major prizes and awards including the highest honour New Zealand offers, The Order of New Zealand, limited to 20 living people, for her internationally-acclaimed contribution to children's literature. They were taken and she really was A Writer. They asked for more and Margaret sent them one hundred - fifteen years of unpublished work.

She has since written many books for children and young adults, including school readers. She was a solitary little tomboy, living in her own world and talking out loud to herself. In 1968, an American publisher spotted one of her stories published in a journal issued to New Zealand schools. Her first book, A Lion in the Meadow, was published in 1969, and was followed by many more picture books and story collections during the 1970s. Margaret Mahy was born in New Zealand in 1936, the eldest of five children, with a huge extended family in the surrounding neighbourhood, and from the beginning her vivid imagination and love of storytelling sometimes confused reality and fantasy. She brought up her two daughters alone, which at the time meant life was often tough. She studied philosophy at university in Auckland and Christchurch, and then qualified as a librarian, specialising in children's reading. Margaret Mahy was born in New Zealand in 1936, the eldest of five children, with a huge extended family in the surrounding neighbourhood, and from the beginning her vivid imagination and love of storytelling sometimes confused reality and fantasy.

A lion in the meadow by margaret mahy