Margaretha Shemin (b.1928) was born in Alkmaar, the Netherlands, and educated at the University of Leiden. She moved to America, and worked as a children’s librarian while producing her books. All her titles are set in Holland, and all aim to challenge stereotypes of the Dutch and their country. Her stories The Empty Moat (1969) and The Little Riders (1963) were based on her own experiences during World War II, when her doctor father was active in the Dutch resistance. The Little Riders is, just about, a horse story: it tells of a child’s struggle to save something that has become totemic to her: the leaden horses and riders from the church tower. The book was made into a film by Disney in 1996.
