Marion St. John Webb

Marion St John Adcock Webb was an English writer of novels and poetry for children that presaged A. A. Milne, with her character "The Littlest One". 

  
She was born in Hampstead on 5 December 1888, the daughter of the poet Arthur St John Adcock and Marlon Louise Taylor. She grew up at 42 Paddington Street and was admitted to St Marylebone School in Marylebone in January 1894, having just turned 5 years old. 

Webb wrote poems for a series of fairy books illustrated by Margaret Tarrant, with whom she worked on around 20 books. The treatment of childhood by Tarrant and Webb is now regarded as sentimentalized, typical of its time. She had no children of her own, She died 2 May 1930 in London. 

Her work is also considered ahead of its time with entries into fantasy parallel worlds, depictions of strong female leads, and includes intense characterisations of people considered on the margins of society. Good copies of Little Round House change hands for £100s of pounds in the specialist book trade.