Norah Montgomerie

Norah Montgomerie, born Norah Mary Shargool, was a British folklorist, illustrator and writer.

Early life

Norah Shargool was born in West Dulwich, London, the daughter of Letitia Alexander Shirley Shargool, a seamstress, and John Shargool, an accountant. She was educated at a boarding school in Folkestone and then at art school in London. Montgomerie told a newspaper that she learned songs, stories and rhymes from her great-grandmother, and carried her foremother's advice, "Don't give children paps, give them something they can chew!" into her own work.

Career

Norah Montgomerie moved to Dundee where she worked for the Scottish publishing company DC Thomson. She also worked in London as a magazine illustrator. In her work she promoted Scots language, traditional tales and poetry in general. With her husband, Montgomerie collected Scottish folk songs and nursery rhymes, and edited and illustrated collections of Scottish folk songs and rhymes for children, including these titles:

Sandy Candy and other Scottish Nursery Rhymes
The Well at the World's End
The Hogarth book of Scottish nursery rhymes
From Time to Time: Selected Poems

In addition, she wrote and illustrated her own books, including The Merry Little Fox and Other Animal Tales, Twenty-five Fables, To Read and to Tell, This Little Pig Went to Market: Play rhymes for infants and young children, and One, Two, Three: A Little Book of Counting Rhymes. In 2009, a collection of her manuscripts titled The Fantastical Feats of Finn MacCoul was published by her grandson Julian Brooks.

Personal life

In 1934, Norah Shargool married William Montgomerie, a Scottish poet and folklorist. They had two children, Dian and Ian. Norah Montgomerie was widowed in 1994, and died in 1998, aged 88 years, in Edinburgh.