Penelope Jane Leach (née Balchin; born 19 November 1937) is a British psychologist who researches and writes extensively on parenting issues from a child development perspective. Leach is best known for her book Your Baby and Child: From Birth to Age Five, published in 1977, which has sold over two million copies to date and won the BMA award for "best medical book for general audiences" in 1998. Leach notes in the introduction to that book: "Whatever you are doing, however you are coping, if you listen to your child and to your own feelings, there will be something you can actually do to put things right or make the best of those that are wrong." Early life and education Born in Hampstead, London, on 19 November 1937, Penelope Jane Leach née Balchin is the daughter of the novelists Nigel Balchin and his first wife, Elisabeth. She graduated from Newnham College, Cambridge, with honours in 1959. After Cambridge, she attended the London School of Economics, where she received her PhD in psychology (1964) and lectured on child development. Career Her first research positions included a year in the Home Office Research Unit studying juvenile crime and six years at the Medical Research Council Developmental Research Unit. Leach is a fellow of the British Psychological Society (1988), was vice-president of the Health Visitors' Association (1988–1999), and president of the National Childminding Association (1999–2006). She was a founding member of AIMH (The Association of Infant Mental Health) (1998–2002) and is now an adviser. She also worked for the Pre-school Parents' Association and with organisations concerned with children's rights, including the NSPCC (Trustee, 1996–1999) and its sister organisations in Ireland, the US, and Canada, and the Children's Rights Development Unit (1996–2001). As a founder and parent educator of EPOCH (End Physical Punishment of Children) (1988–2004), now CAU (Children are Unbeatable), she has written pamphlets and booklets campaigning against physical punishment and in favor of positive discipline. Since 2009 she has been a Director of the Mindful Policy group which seeks to link psychological research and political policy. Recently she has contributed to work on the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum, writing the lead chapter to the book Too Much Too Soon?: Early Learning and the erosion of childhood, Hawthorne Press 2011. Between 1997 and 2005, Leach co-directed the largest ever English study of childcare. Her current research, writing and teaching focuses on contemporary