In the field of children's literature, Kevin Crossley-Holland is best known for his adaptations of myths, legends, and folktales, although he also writes original fiction for children and young adults. In Minnesota (his home in the early 1990s) and in his native Britain, Crossley-Holland has another identity: he is a highly respected poet who writes mainly for an adult audience. His best children's books combine his love of traditional literature and his poetic sensitivity to language to create moody, musical versions of nearly forgotten old tales, particularly stories from Norse legend, Anglo-Saxon poetry, and East Anglian folklore.

Kevin John William Crossley-Holland was born in Mursley, Buckinghamshire, on 7 February 1941. His father, Peter Crossley-Holland, was a noted ethnomusicologist, and his mother, Joan Mary Cowper, received royal recognition for her services to the arts. The overriding theme of Crossley-Holland's childhood was music: international folksongs performed by his father (or on the...