Background
Winifred was the daughter of servants in Felton, Northumberland, went to school in nearby Wallsend-on-Tyne, and continued at Newcastle University on scholarship for English studies.
Winifred was the daughter of servants in Felton, Northumberland, went to school in nearby Wallsend-on-Tyne, and continued at Newcastle University on scholarship for English studies.
In 1937 she moved to University College London to earn a teaching diploma. She pursued a teaching career wherever he worked for the British Council: Romania, Yugoslavia, Egypt, Sheffield, Brisbane, Leeds. In Brisbane, Australia, she wrote her first novel, Down The Long Stairs (1964), which she mailed to Oxford University Press.
Her last novel was the semi-autobiographical Silver Everything And Many Mansions (1976).
All four novels are set in Northumberland. The first two are English Civil War stories set in 1648 and 1649.
The third features the dispute over wages and hours of British coal miners, and May lockout of miners, that is famous for the sympathetic General Strike of 1926. The fourth is based on her own experiences "growing up poor in the northeast of England between the wars".
According to Julia Eccleshare, Children"s Book Editor for The Guardian, Cawley"s four books for children "made a significant contribution in the early days of social realism in children"s books
Now so fashionable, stories about children from less affluent homes were almost non-existent until the late 1950s and 60s..". "Cawley contributed to the expanding horizons of children"s books, not only on matters of class but also on the importance of place and region.".