Kathleen Mary Pearson was the daughter of a
physician and grew up in a
Georgian house at the end of the High Street in
Leighton Buzzard. The house now forms part of Leighton Middle School, known within the school as The Old House, and was reputedly the setting of her novel
The Borrowers. She married Robert Charles Norton on 4 September 1926 and had four children, two boys and two girls; her son, also named
Robert Norton, became a printer and
Microsoft executive. Her second husband was Lionel Bonsey, whom she married in 1970. Norton began working for the British War Office in 1940 before the family moved temporarily to the United States. She began writing while working for the
British Purchasing Commission in
New York City during the
Second World War. Her first book was
The Magic Bed Knob; or, How to Become a Witch in Ten Easy Lessons, published by
J. M. Dent in 1944. Its sequel
Bonfires and Broomsticks followed two years later and they were re-issued jointly as
Bed-Knob and Broomstick in 1957. The stories became the basis for the 1971
Disney film
Bedknobs and Broomsticks. During her latter years Norton lived with her second husband in the village of
Hartland in
Devon. She died of a
stroke in
Bideford, Devon, England, on 29 August 1992. ==Works==