reflect the impact of social inequalities on her protagonists, their willingness to challenge them, and the value they placed on education as a promoter of change. Her biography of the Victorian feminist Barbara Bodichon shows her abiding interest in women's issues; her novels have strong, independent heroines, and many of Ambrus's cover illustrations emphasise female character. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature summarises her novels as "featuring heroines with strong opinions; class tensions and social justice are recurring themes. Her writing is unsentimental... and her books accounts of ordinary young people affected by national events." In a letter of February 2006, one of Burton's daughters wrote, "I could always tell when Mum had another book on her mind, she would start to cook the meal while still wearing her overcoat and hat." Death Hester Burton died on 17 September 2000 in Oxford, after a stroke suffered at the age of 86. Bibliography Fiction for older readers The Great Gale (1960), also titled The Flood at Reedsmere; the North Sea flood of 1953; Castors Away! (1962) on the Napoleonic wars Time of Trial (1963) on free speech in the early 19th century A Seaman at the Time of Trafalgar (1963) on the Napoleonic wars at sea No Beat of Drum (1966) on social unrest in 1830 and transportation to Van Diemen's Land, modern Tasmania; In Spite of All Terror (1968) on the beginning of the Second World War, Dunkirk and evacuation Thomas (1969, in the US as Beyond the Weir Bridge) on the English Civil War and after The Henchmans at Home (1970), also titled The Day That Went Terribly Wrong: And Other Stories; family life in Victorian Suffolk; The Rebel (1971) on Revolutionary France Riders of the Storm (1972) on education and unrest in 18th-century England Kate Rider (1974) on the English Civil War: the Siege of Colchester To Ravensrigg (1976) on the Liverpool slave trade; A Grenville Goes to Sea (1977) on Nelson's navy When the Beacons Blazed (1978) on the Spanish Armada Five August Days (1981), a contemporary adventure; Fiction for younger readers These were published as part of the Antelope Series, intended for readers of six-nine years. Otmoor for Ever (1968); Jake and his brother Seth resist as the common land of Otmoor is enclosed by the local land-owners using fences and hedges. Through the Fire (1969); covers many of the themes of Thomas including the persecution