Jill Murphy Books In Order

Publication Order of The Large Family Books

Publication Order of The Worst Witch Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Picture Books

Jill Murphy is children’s fiction author best known for “The Worst Witch” series of novels. Murphy has been called one of the most engaging illustrators and writers of children’s books in the United Kingdom. Jill was born to an Irish engineer and a book maniac mother who had books all over the house. Growing up in London, she was interested in storytelling and illustrating right from the time she could hold a pen and pencil in hand. By the time she was two years old, she was playing with pens drawing odd shapes on sheets of drawing her mother had. Her mother supported her creativity and kept all her scrapbooks which she still has to this day. She is one of those people that are very fortunate to see how her drawing and handwriting have grown in leaps and bounds over time. In primary school, she had her own collection full of illustrated and handwritten stories.

After graduating from primary school, Jill Murphy went to Wimbledon’s Ursuline High School. It was a strict convent school and she hated it right from the moment she stepped on the threshold. The nuns who were her new teachers and guardians did not care about her illustrations and instead were on her case for not finishing her physics homework. However, she still made the time for reading aside from writing her boarding school stories. Her writing during this time would provide much of the inspiration and material for “The Worst Academy” series of novels. Most of the characters in the series are based on her friends and on herself. Mildred the lead is a character based on herself, the nasty and nice teachers are real ones from her school and Elizabeth, her best friend is the inspiration for Maud. Jill used to draw little pictures of her characters while still in school. Murphy thought that pointy hats had something magical to them which is why she drew Mildred and the other characters with them. The characters have not changed much since she first drew them with a pencil in high school.

Even though Jill Murphy started writing the series while she was still in high school, she had to put everything on hold to go attend the Croydon and Chelsea Art Schools. During this time, she lived in Togo and for a few months also made a living as a nanny back home in the United Kingdom. She also continued writing the manuscript for “The Worst Witch,” her debut novel. Once she was done, she sent off the script to publishers and they all rejected it. Frustrated, she put it in a drawer intending to pursue other things. But after working in a children’s home as a nanny for several months, she was called by a small time publisher who wanted to talk about her manuscript. The rest as they say is history as the novel went on to become a major success. Given the success of her debut, she decided to make a career for herself as a full time author.

In 1986, HBO premiered a TV movie titled “The Worst Witch.” The Disney Channel would also air the movie during Halloween. “The Worst Witch” series of novels has become one of the most popular children’s fiction. They have been adapted into a TV series that was broadcast between CITV between 1998 and 2001. There are now more than 3 million copies of the novels in print.

In “The Worst Witch” the debut novel of the series by Jill Murphy, Mildred Hubble just got admitted to the Miss Cackle’s Academy. The school is something of a witch school with potions classes, flying lessons on broomsticks, and houses all over the place. All the young witches in training are entitled to a cat. Only Mildred is unlucky enough to be given the only white cat in the whole school as the rest of the girls get black ones. It is an adorable cat that never leaves Mildred’s side as she gets into all manner of scrapes. It is soon clear that when it comes to staying out of trouble or succeeding in class she is no Hermione Granger. But she does not mean any one ill will and it really stings when deep down meanie Ethel who pretends to be good casts a spell on Mildred. He also does some bad things and blames her when the teachers come asking for the culprit. But Mildred takes things into her own hands when she disrupts a wicked plot that was brewing. By doing this, she gets a chance to save her own reputation and her school.

“The Worst Witch Strikes Again” by Jill Murphy is the story of Mildred Hubble, a young and hapless girl that has been charged with chaperoning and befriending Enid Nightshade, a new student at the academy. But she is the worst influence any new student could ever hope for. Miss Hardbroom, the class teacher, is not very impressed when Enid casts a spell to make herself more likely to succeed when sports day comes around. Not knowing that Enid was involved, Mildred is blamed for the act. When Enid Turns a witch’s cat into a monkey, Mildred once again gets the blame. Things continue to go badly for Mildred when she gets coerced by Enid to skip a celebration honoring the head mistress. But her travails are just about to get worse when fate unexpectedly and suddenly turns her way. This is a beautiful story of influence and friendship that has withstood the test of time.

“A Bad Spell for the Worst Witch” the third novel of “The Worst Witch” series sees Mildred and her friends Maud and Enid starting the second year at the academy. Ethel Hallow, a spiteful pupil, breaks the witches’ code and casts a spell turning Mildred into a frog in secret. Eventually her friends with a little guile manage to figure out that their friend has been made into a frog. Taking the law into their own hands trying to free their friend, chaos reigns. Luckily for Mildred, she meets a magician while she is a frog and he helps her turn back into a human. With his help she also gets to redeem her reputation before the head mistress.