Joyce Lankester Brisley was born in 1896 and studied art at Lambeth Art School. The first Milly-Molly-Mandy stories were published in 1925 in the Christian Science Monitor and a first collection of these stories was published in book form in 1928. An accomplished artist as well as writer, she designed posters and book jackets as well as illustrating the work of other authors. Joyce Lankester Brisley died in 1978 but Milly-Molly-Mandy's popularity lives on.