The Worst Witch is a children's book written by Jill Murphy. It was first published in 1974 and has since become a beloved classic in the genre of children's literature. The story follows the adventures of Mildred Hubble, a young witch who attends Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches. Mildred is not an average witch. In fact, she is often described as the worst witch in the school. She is clumsy, forgetful, and always seems to find herself in trouble.
We would recommend that you return your items via tracked post. Please clearly state on the invoice the reason for return and whether you require a refund or exchange, We are only able to exchange items for the same product.
If you return goods claiming they are defective, we will examine the returned goods and will notify you of your refund via e-mail within a reasonable period of time. J ill Murphy credits her strict grammar school with the creation of one of the most beloved children s characters of the last half-century Mildred Hubble, the schoolgirl witch who repeatedly saves the day while being mercilessly tormented by teacher s pet Ethel Hallow, and who is perhaps better known as the Worst Witch.
She is clumsy, forgetful, and always seems to find herself in trouble. Despite her best efforts, she struggles to meet the expectations of her teachers and fellow students. Throughout the book, Mildred faces various challenges and setbacks.
Jill Murphy: 'I just wanted to have a book on the shelf'
J ill Murphy credits her strict grammar school with the creation of one of the most beloved children’s characters of the last half-century: Mildred Hubble, the schoolgirl witch who repeatedly saves the day while being mercilessly tormented by teacher’s pet Ethel Hallow, and who is perhaps better known as the Worst Witch.
An extraordinarily precocious child, who taught herself to read before she went to school and who could draw almost before she could walk – her mother would sit her in the middle of large pieces of paper so she could let loose with a pencil – Murphy sailed through primary school. Grammar school, the Ursuline Convent in Wimbledon, wasn’t quite so easy.
“It was Mildred from there on,” she says, sitting in the bright, sunny room of a friend’s borrowed flat in Hampstead. “That was how The Worst Witch was written because it was absolutely terrible, I couldn’t do any of it. The nuns in particular were quite a ferocious strain … they could be very cruel. One of them said to me: ‘How on earth did you get into this school in the first place; did your parents pay?’ And then she looked me up and down and said: ‘Obviously not.’ Such a superb putdown! I wrote it down, because I was thinking I’d be a playwright at that point.”
Murphy, 67, wanted to be a writer and illustrator since she can remember, putting together a series of 90 tiny books stapled together by hand as a child. “I used to write my name on everything. I used to write it on my leg in felt-tip pen, because I wanted to have a book so much,” she says, with the pinpoint accurate recall of her childhood that many of the best children’s writers have. “I just wanted to have a book on the shelf [alongside] The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Secret Garden, a real book with my name on it.”
She had sat the 11-plus without any great hope of passing. Brilliant at English, but told firmly by her headmistress that “there’s no hope in the maths department”, she’d taken on board the fact that she’d get, at the least, a mark for writing her name: “I thought, if I wrote my name a lot, they might add them on to my English marks. So I think I wrote about 500 of them to be on the safe side, in lovely writing and all very different.”
She was given an interview for the convent, and after holding forth about Dickens – “I said David Copperfield was my favourite because I like the bits when he’s young but I think his heroines are very silly when they grow up” – she remembers hearing the interviewers collapsing with laughter as she left. But they must have liked her, because she got in – only to find herself “bumping along at the bottom”, her brilliance in English and art unable to make up for her struggles in other subjects.
She began writing The Worst Witch in her school roughbook when she was 14, then rewrote it when she was 18, when she’d been thrown out of art school in Camberwell – “I wasn’t very good at institutions really” – and sent it off to three publishers in 1969.
“Collins thought it was wonderful but too frightening for children because it was about a school for witches. They got that so wrong, didn’t they?” she says, adding – and this is her only reference to a certain boy wizard who followed so many years later – “especially with the person who had the same idea all those years later, all of a sudden”.
The cast of the 2017 TV adaptation of The Worst Witch books, with Mildred Hubble played by Game of Thrones actor Bella Ramsey. Photograph: Matt Squire/BBC / Matt Squire / Geraint Williams
The Worst Witch was rejected by everyone, so she put it in a drawer and went to live in Ghana with her first husband, who was studying there. Upon return, she was put in touch with the independent publisher Allison & Busby, who took it on and published it exactly as she’d written it. In Murphy’s own words: “It was an absolute smash hit.”
She wrote a sequel, The Worst Witch Strikes Again, and gave up work as a nanny to devote herself to writing. She then tried her hand at children’s picture books with Peace at Last, about a daddy bear who can’t sleep. It was nominated for the Kate Greenaway award, and Murphy “found I had a career almost by default”.
A host of now-classic picture books followed, such as On the Way Home and The Last Noo-noo, and particularly her stories of the Large family of elephants, which began with the enduring bestseller Five Minutes’ Peace. It was inspired, she says, by a pregnant friend of hers with a host of children.
“She once had some leftover cake and she said: ‘I’m determined to have this bloody cake, they’re not getting it.’ … They followed us upstairs. She said: ‘Why do you think I had so many children? It’s so you’ll play, by yourselves, and keep an eye on the baby.’ So I went to the bathroom with her and sat on the floor and she balanced her cup of tea in the bubble bath, on her stomach. I thought it was so funny. Really, they just did the whole book.”
‘I’m determined to have this bloody cake, they’re not getting it’ … detail from the cover of Five Minutes’ Peace. Illustration: © 1986 Jill Murphy/Walker Books
Five Minutes’ Peace is beloved for its accurate yet affectionate depiction of the trials and tribulations of motherhood. Meltdown, Murphy’s new picture book, is as familiar but less affectionate: the story of a baby rabbit, Ruby, slowly descending into a tantrum in a supermarket, over a cake. It’s also very funny, as Ruby’s mother tries to wrestle the cake away from her daughter while dealing with the disapproval of fellow shoppers, and wonderful to read to children: “GIVE ME THE PIGGY CAKE NOW!”
It’s based, admits Murphy, on one of the few tantrums her son Charlie (now 26) threw as a toddler during a trip to the supermarket: after asking repeatedly to hold a pig-shaped cake, “he just suddenly ripped the whole thing in half and started snatching at it, delving his hand in”.
“I just wanted to die, really,” she says. “The cake was completely mangled, he was covered in it, so was I. I managed to wrestle it back into the trolley and he went completely berserk.”
Murphy finished writing and illustrating Meltdown just before going through a round of chemotherapy for breast cancer. She’d had cancer 20 years earlier, with no recurrence until she discovered a lump the week before her final checkup. She’s been in London for the treatment, which she says has “clobbered” it successfully. “The most fascinating bit for me was that all my hair fell out, as it does when you have chemotherapy, and now instead of poker straight dark shiny hair I’ve got a cloud of curls, like a cross between a terrier and Queen Mary. It is so strange after years of being dark.”
Her illness means she’s been delayed in writing the eighth and final Worst Witch book, which will be called First Prize for the Worst Witch. “As anyone who has had this treatment knows, if you’ve had it you get something called chemo brain, it’s almost as though your mind is only trying to process what you need, so you don’t remember things properly. You can’t even quite remember a sentence construction. But I don’t want to write anything that’s not good,” she says. “It’s sad because there’s a lovely speech at the end of it when Miss Cackle stands up to Miss Hardbroom, and it’s so nicely done I want to do the bit before and after it, but I can’t quite patchwork it in at the moment.”
As a new adaptation of the Worst Witch makes its way onto CBBC and Netflix, Murphy says she’s a third of the way through the novel and wants her readers to know she’ll finish it soon enough. “There will be another one. I’m just waiting for my brain to completely recover,” she says. “It’s getting there.”
Explore more on these topics- Children and teenagers
- features
Her illness means she’s been delayed in writing the eighth and final Worst Witch book, which will be called First Prize for the Worst Witch. “As anyone who has had this treatment knows, if you’ve had it you get something called chemo brain, it’s almost as though your mind is only trying to process what you need, so you don’t remember things properly. You can’t even quite remember a sentence construction. But I don’t want to write anything that’s not good,” she says. “It’s sad because there’s a lovely speech at the end of it when Miss Cackle stands up to Miss Hardbroom, and it’s so nicely done I want to do the bit before and after it, but I can’t quite patchwork it in at the moment.”
She accidentally turns another student into a pig, messes up her spells, and gets blamed for the chaos that ensues at the school. Despite these mishaps, Mildred remains determined to prove herself and become a successful witch. With the help of her friends, Mildred manages to get through her first year at the academy. She finds solace in her friendship with Maud, who is also seen as an outcast by their classmates. Together, they navigate the ups and downs of their magical education and support each other through their struggles. One of the major themes in The Worst Witch is the importance of friendship and acceptance. Despite her flaws, Mildred is admired and loved by her friends for who she is. The book also explores themes of resilience and perseverance, as Mildred never gives up on her dreams, even when faced with constant challenges. The Worst Witch is a delightful and humorous book that teaches valuable lessons about self-acceptance and overcoming obstacles. It has captured the hearts of readers for decades and continues to be enjoyed by children and adults alike. Jill Murphy's charming writing style and relatable characters make this book an enduring classic in children's literature..
Reviews for "How The Worst Witch Pioneered the Representation of Independent Female Protagonists"
1. Emily - 2/5 - I found "The Worst Witch" by Jill Murphy to be quite disappointing. The main character, Mildred, was extremely clumsy and annoying, and her actions always seemed to create chaos instead of solving problems. The plot was predictable and lacked depth, leaving me uninterested and frustrated. I believe the story could have been better developed, with more complex characters and a more engaging storyline. Overall, I was quite disappointed with this book and would not recommend it.
2. James - 1/5 - "The Worst Witch" by Jill Murphy was a complete waste of time in my opinion. The characters were one-dimensional and had no depth, making it difficult to connect or care about them. The writing style felt very simplistic and juvenile, even for a children's book. The plot was unoriginal and lacked any excitement or surprises. I felt like I was reading a poorly executed version of other popular fantasy books. Overall, I found this book to be boring and predictable, and I would not recommend it to anyone.
3. Sarah - 2/5 - I was not impressed with "The Worst Witch" by Jill Murphy. The story had potential but fell short in execution. The writing felt rushed and lacked description, making it difficult to picture the magical world that the author was trying to create. The characters were forgettable and lacked depth, making it hard to care about their journey or struggles. Additionally, the pacing was uneven, with some parts dragging on while others felt rushed. Overall, I found this book to be underwhelming and would not recommend it.
4. Michael - 1/5 - I was extremely disappointed with "The Worst Witch" by Jill Murphy. The story felt unoriginal and lacked any sort of depth or originality. The main character, Mildred, was constantly making mistakes and causing trouble, which became repetitive and annoying. The writing style was dry and uninspiring, and I found it difficult to stay engaged with the story. Overall, I would not recommend this book to anyone looking for an exciting or unique reading experience.