Margaret Bhatty

Margaret Bhatty Biography

Margaret Bhatty was an Indian author, journalist and school teacher. She worked as a freelancer journalist. As a writer, she won 1982 BBC World Service International Story Contest for "All is Maya, All is Illusion" and 1995 BBC World Service International Drama Contest for My Enemy, My Friend – the only play she wrote in her entire life. She is best known as a storyteller of children’s stories, and has also authored short stories for adults. She wrote one novel and one play each, The Arsonist and My Enemy, My Friend respectively. Her works belong to the genre, Narrative nonfiction and fantasy.

Margaret Ruth Bhatty or Margaret Grundy or simply Margaret Bhatty was born on 5 October 1930 to Mark Vernon Grundy and Pansy Gunasekra in Berinag. The place now belongs to Uttarakhand state. As a child some of her hobbies were fishing, hunting and trekking. She was a nature lover too. She schooled at Nainital and graduation from Lucknow. She completed her postgraduate degree in Journalism from Nagpur, before pursuing a career in teaching as well as journalism. She got married to Feroze Bhatty in 1954 and the couple had three children.

She worked as a teacher in Isabella Thoburn College, Lucknow, and also worked as a freelancer journalist for The Hitavada newspaper at the same period. She contributed articles to the daily. She also worked in a few more schools and contributed articles and stories to school magazines too. Some of her popular children’s books include - The Adventures of Bhim the Bold, The Circus Boy, Kidnapping at Birpur, Little Old Woman, Travelling Companions, The Secret of Sickle Moon Mountain, The Family at Paangar Pani, The Evil Empire etc. She passed away in 2012.

Published: October 16, 2018

Updated: October 16, 2018