Humphrey Carpenter (1946 – 2005) was born and educated in Oxford. He attended the Dragon School, before going to Keble College, where his father had been Warden for many years. He was well known as a writer and previously as a producer for the BBC. He published biographies of Tolkien, W.H. Auden, Benjamin Britten, Ezra Pound, Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury, C.S Lewis, and the Inklings (which won the Somerset Maugham Award). In 1984 his major study THE OXFORD COMPANION TO CHILDREN'S LITERATURE was published to great acclaim.
Humphrey wrote many children's books including the ever popular MR MAJEIKA series (published in Viking Kestrel and Puffin) and the TV adventures of Mr Majeika
