Betty MacDonald was born Anne Elizabeth Campbell Bard in Boulder, Colorado, in 1908. The daughter of an engineer, she spent her early years in the mining towns of Idaho, Montana and Mexico. When she was nine, her father took the family - his wife and five children - to Seattle, where Betty lived until shortly after her marriage. Among her books for children are Nancy and Plum, first published in 1952, and the popular American classic series Mrs Piggle-Wiggle.