As a child, Barbara Ker Wilson used to accompany her father to a large publishing office in London, to deliver the corrected proofs of his latest engineering textbook, and she knew then that she wanted to work in the world of writing and publishing. Her first 'successful' work, written when she was eight, was a play based on the coronation of King George VI, performed at her primary school in England. Throughout her childhood she wrote poetry, short stories and unfinished 'novels'. She was later educated at North London Collegiate School, England. The Second World War influenced Ker Wilson greatly, particularly the experience of living through air raids in London. With the end of the war she had her first experience of travelling abroad; ever since, she has travelled extensively in Europe and Asia.
As a writer, her primary interest was to tell a story, and she returned repeatedly to the refreshing vigour of the world's original stories - folktales - that she regarded as the springboard for all fiction. As an editor, Ker Wilson worked mainly with books for young readers. She worked as an editor for a number of publishing companies in England, including Bodley Head, for whom she edited C. S. Lewis's The Last Battle (1956). She also wrote several books for children before moving to Australia in 1964.
Ker Wilson continued her publishing career with Angus & Robertson, Hodder & Stoughton, Readers Digest and University of Queensland Press. While she was with Angus & Robertson, she instigated the Australian exhibitions at the Bologna Book Fair. She lectured on writing for children at schools and libraries throughout Australia. She was married to Peter Tahourdin, a composer, and they had two daughters.
In addition to works individually indexed on AustLit, Barbara Ker Wilson is also the author of a biography of English children's writer Noel Streatfeild (London: Bodley Head, 1961), published before she arrived in Australia.
