Kathleen Hale; Wrote, Illustrated ‘Orlando’ Books

Kathleen Hale, 101, an author and illustrator of children’s books about “Orlando the Marmalade Cat.” Published from 1938 through the 1950s, the 19 large picture books in the series were filled with brightly colored illustrations full of detail and whimsy. Hale began chronicling the adventures of Orlando and his wife, Gracie, after spending much of her youth as a struggling artist among the bohemians of 1920s London. In a 1994 interview with the BBC, Hale said that her childhood in Manchester, England, was devoid of love and affection. Her father died when she was 5 and she was “parked out with various cruel Victorian aunts who were adept at mental torture.” She had a number of odd jobs in her early adult years. During World War I she transported vegetables by horse cart in the middle of the night to London’s Covent Garden Market. She also worked as a bill collector for a window cleaner. It was after she married pathologist Douglas McClean and had two sons that Orlando, the family cat, became the source of stories for the elder boy. “To a 4-year-old, a cat is another person. I started telling him stories which I wrote down,” she said. Orlando’s personality was taken from her husband’s: “upright, honest, full of integrity and caring for his family. I’ve romanticized him. There couldn’t have been a man as good as all that.” She was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1976. In her mid-90s she retained her lively manner, interests and optimism. “I stay young by being a bit naughty and not being too holy,” she said. On Wednesday in Bristol, England.