Patricia Crampton (1925-2016)
Patricia Crampton translated over 200 children’s books and more than 50 adult books from a variety of European languages and for a range of UK publishers, winning numerous awards. She was also a tireless campaigner for translators and endlessly supportive of and generous to fledgling translators.
After studying Modern Languages at the University of Oxford, Patricia worked as a translator for the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials from 1947 to 1949. On her return to the UK she worked first for a large international corporation and then for NATO, starting her career as a freelance literary translator in 1957. She translated books from Danish, Spanish, Norwegian, French and Dutch, before her first Swedish translations in 1968.
From the 1960s onwards Patricia was passionately involved in the world of children’s books and was active in the UK branch of the International Board on Books for Young People. She was the UK representative on IBBY’s jury for the Hans Christian Andersen award and later the jury president. In 1991 she won the Eleanor Farjeon award for outstanding services to children’s literature.
Patricia’s love of Sweden and its language began when she visited the country as a young graduate in 1946. Most of the Swedish books she went on to translate were children’s books and many of the authors became her close friends. The long list includes Ann-Mari Falk, Hans-Eric Hellberg, Harry Iseborg, Astrid Lindgren, Ulf Löfgren, Karin Nyman, Hans Peterson, Edith Unnerstad, Siv Widerberg and Anna-Greta Winberg. She was one of the founder members of SELTA and was its chair from 1992 to 1996. It was at Patricia’s instigation that the Bernard Shaw Prize for translation from Swedish was established, funded by the Anglo-Swedish Literary Foundation set up with George Bernard Shaw’s Nobel Prize money, and today sponsored also by the Embassy of Sweden in London and Arts Council England.
Patricia was well known and much respected among UK translators. She was a member of the Society of Authors for over 50 years and was one of the Translators Association’s longest standing members, joining in 1962 and serving as its chair for three years. She was instrumental in the adoption of Public Lending Right for authors and translators, legislation for which was passed in 1979. In 1976 she helped ensure that a UNESCO recommendation for the protection of translators was passed (despite the UK government entering the only ‘no’ vote). In 1996 her work was recognised by the Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs, who awarded her the Pierre-François Caillé Medal for world-wide services to translation. Patricia died on 1 December 2016.