Jenifer Wayne

{{Short description|British writer (1917–1982)}} {{for|the American singer|Jennifer Wayne}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

'''Jenifer Wayne''' (1917–1982) (born '''Anne Jenifer Wayne''') was a British author of children's literature. She graduated in 1939 from Somerville College, Oxford.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Wayne |first=Jenifer |title=The Purple Dress: Growing up in the Thirties |publisher=Victor Gollancz Ltd |year=1979 |isbn=0-575-02564-6 |location=London |pages=51–75 |language=English}}</ref>{{sfn|Batson|2008|p=210}} After leaving Oxford, she worked as an ambulance driver and an English teacher in a girls school in Newark-on-Trent before joining the staff of the BBC in 1941 as writer/producer.<ref name=":0" />

As a member of the Features department she trained with Francis 'Jack' Dillon before replacing Douglas Cleverdon as the Features producer for the BBC West Region in Bristol. In Bristol she produced radio documentaries that highlighted the traditions and everyday folk in the surrounding regions.<ref name=":0" /> These included 'The Plain' (1942), 'The Cotswolds' (1943) and 'The Moor' (1943).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Search - BBC Programme Index |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/0/20?order=first&filt=is_radio&q=jenifer+wayne#top |access-date=2025-06-14 |website=genome.ch.bbc.co.uk}}{{dead link|date=September 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> After the death of her brother in 1944, she returned to London and began working on a series ''This is the Law'' which she was associated with until 1952. The writer and journalist Cecil R. Hewitt served as an advisor on the programme.

In 1948, she married Cecil R. Hewitt (C. H. Rolph of the New Statesman) and became a freelance writer for Home and Overseas Services. They had three children, the eldest of whom, Deborah, won a scholarship to Somerville. They lived in Surrey.

Her books included the ''Sprout'' series, and ''The Day the Ceiling Fell Down'' and ''The Night the Rain Came In'', which featured the same group of three children.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/27949.Jenifer_Wayne |title=Jenifer Wayne |publisher=Goodreads |accessdate=29 March 2016}}</ref> Her works have been translated into German, Dutch and Latvian.

Wayne also wrote two autobiographies, ''Brown Bread and Butter in the Basement: a Twenties childhood'' and ''The Purple Dress: growing up in the Thirties''.

==References== {{reflist}}

===Bibliography=== *{{cite book |ref={{harvid|Batson|2008}} |title=Her Oxford |author1=Judy G. Batson |publisher=Vanderbilt University Press |edition= |year=2008 |isbn=9780826516107 }}

==External links== *[http://www.alibris.com/search/books/author/Wayne,%20Jenifer Guide] *[http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n50-20686 Another guide]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wayne, Jenifer}} Category:1917 births Category:1982 deaths Category:British children's writers Category:Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford