Pea Boy and Other Stories from Iran by Elizabeth Laird

That means that when a parent or teacher comes in and says, 'I need all your Aztec folktales!,' I can actually provide them with what they want. Thanks to their efforts over the last century, my room is privy to a large, lush, fantastic folktale/fairytale section. More to the point, I profit off the talents of the children's librarians that have come before me. I work in the main branch of New York Public Library in the most beautiful children's room imaginable. She currently lives in Richmond, London with her husband. She claims to dislike snakes, porridge and being cold but enjoys very dark chocolate, Mozart, reading and playing the violin in the Iraq Symphony Orchestra. The couple were married in 1975 and have two sons, Angus and William. During travel, she met her future husband, David McDowall, who she said was very kind to her when she was airsick on a plane. She and a friend would hire mules and go into remote areas in the holidays.Īfter a while at Edinburgh University, Laird worked in India for a summer. She decided to continue her adventurous life, even though she was bitten by a poisonous snake and went down with typhoid.Īfter attending the university in Bristol, Laird began teaching English in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. When she was eighteen, Laird started teaching at a school in Malaysia. In 1945, Laird and her family returned to Britain and she grew up in South London, where she was educated at Croydon High School. Her father was a ship's surgeon both he and Laird's mother were Scottish. Laird was born in New Zealand in 1943, the fourth of five children.

Pea Boy and Other Stories from Iran by Elizabeth Laird