Naomi Lewis (1911 – 2009) was a prodigious poet, literary critic, reviewer ,and writer of children's stories. and in particularly a renowned authority with a genius at retelling and interpreting of the Danish fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersons facilitated by her deep affinity with and knowledge of the world of magic and its interface with humankind and with fairy tales. She held Anderston's fairy tales to be the greatest of all fairy tales because ,as she would often tell me,unlike Grimms ,they were original tales.She sprinkled each retelling with her own special magic.
Naomi was an amazing poet being producing her anthology A Footprint on the Air (1983) an anthology of nature verse,and Messages (1985) which included The Wolf said to Francis, Counsel,and Creatures of Early Morning.Quentin Blake,Britain's first Children's Laureate in 2000 choose Naomi's anthologyMessages as among his fifty favourite books . Naomi was perhaps proudest of her 1993 publication The Mardi Gras Cat, a selected gallery of feline characters, each made immortal in her poetry.
Naomi Lewis was deeply dedicated to the rights of animals and often had me help her rescue injured birds and with a remarkable sucees rate ,often nursing severly injured ones through the night.many if not all she innuced back to recovery.She was ofcourse a vegitarian invariably a vegan .Her contempt for any form of animal mistreatment was unremitting and adamintine as is displayed in her letter to the Evening Standard, exhibited below. 'What moral right have humans to lay on sensitive creatures the sufferings of their own vanity, greed and cowardice, and a host of various sins?'
In 1975 Naomi Lewis received the Eleanor Farjeon Award in recogntion for her services to children’s literature and in 1981 she was elected to the Royal Society of Literature as a Fellow.
Naomi Lewis was born in Great Yarmouth Norfolk in 1911,second child of four to a Latvian Jewish immigrant family.Her father was a fish merchant and her mother a musician and artist of great meritand facilitated an upbringing of prolific intellectual impertus ,conversation of intellectuals and resounding to music and literature. The roots of her amazing intellect germinated in such a growing field of a happy childhood.She studied at Yarmouth High School and Naomi went on to win a scholarship to read English at Westfield College at the University of London,
By now the family had moved into their home in Bloomsbury's Red Lion Square,which was to remain her primary residence.After graduation Naomi briefly in Switzerland then in England where she was an inspiring teacher.Her career as a critic began shortly after the second World War when she famously entered the weekly competitions run by the News Statesman under a number of pseudonyms and won prizes week after week .When she eventually apllied for a job revealing her true identity to the editor she was promptly offer a double page spread in each issue whereby she was able to eastablish herself as an insightful and deeply intellegent critic .She also wrote for The Observer,The New York Times,the Listenerand The Times Literary Supplement.Her first published book was A Visit to Mrs. Wilcox (1957) and received considerable acclaim.
VS Pritchett inspired Naomi to reviewing children's literature the genesisi of which led to her translations and anthologies including Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales (1981), Arabian Nights (1987) and The Snow Queen in 1981.

A letter Naomi wrote to the Evening Standard titled “Our Vast Debt to Animals.”

"What a minefield of wilful assertions is your leader (Animal Wrongs, 11 December) with its cynical view of "animal rights.”
Of course, the debt of humans to animals is so vast that for most any feeling of gratitude (or even doubt) would bring on a burden of guilt too great to be endured. Perhaps this is why there is no state funding at all for animal charities.
Reminders of our debt: food, transport, clothing, vivisection, companionship, dreadful “cultural rituals” (bullfighting voodoo), military testing (missiles, poison gas) -- where do we stop?
Millions are living in torture at this moment. Yet animals are not only gifted in ways unattainable by humans: they know pain, grief, fear, despair, devotion. They are better parents (the wolf, for instance) than most humans.
Look at human kind -- predatory, destructive, killing more and more creatures with their own terrifying increase. What moral right have humans to lay on sensitive creatures the sufferings of their own vanity, greed and cowardice, and a host of various sins? Don’t quote the scriptures. They can be quoted back.”Naomi Lewis.