Quick Facts
Biography
Joyce Lankester Brisley (6 February 1896 – 1978) was an English writer. She is most noted for writing and illustrating the Milly-Molly-Mandy series, which were first printed in 1925 by the Christian Science Monitor.
The second of three daughters of George Brisley, a pharmacist, of Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, Brisley's sisters- Ethel Constance, the eldest, and Nina Kennard, the youngest- were also illustrators. They studied art firstly at Hastings School of Art, then, following their parents' divorce in 1912 and the subsequent relocation of the girls and their father to Brixton, at Lambeth School of Art.
All three sisters illustrated postcards for the publisher Alfred Vivian Mansell & Co., with Nina (who also illustrated Elinor Brent-Dyer's Chalet School series) and Ethel becoming quite prolific. Brisley died in 1978 at the age of 82.
Career
Brisley's books were first printed in 1925, and a collection appeared in book form in 1928. She wrote and illustrated six collections of Milly-Molly-Mandy, amongst other works.