Ann Pilling

Ann Pilling (born 17 October 1944) is an English author and poet best known for young adult fiction. She has also written horror fiction under the pen name Ann Cheetham.

For Henry's Leg, published by Viking Kestrel in 1985, she won the annual Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a once-in-a-lifetime book award judged by a panel of British children's writers.

Pilling was born in Warrington, Lancashire, and grew up in a house "groaning with books". She started writing poetry when she was eight. At twelve years old, she took herself to church because 'I had a strong sense of God'. Her religious faith is important to her but she more often chooses secular subjects. She studied English at King's College London and wrote a Master's thesis on C. S. Lewis., her first introduction to contemporary children's books.