Kathleen Wendy Herald Peyton (born 2 August 1929), who writes primarily as K. M. Peyton, is a British author of fiction for children and young adults.
She has written more than fifty novels including the much loved "Flambards" series of pony stories, for which she won both the 1969 Carnegie Medal in Literature from the Library Association and the 1970 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, judged by a panel of British children's writers. In 1979 the Flambards trilogy was adapted as a 13-part television series, Flambards, starring Christine McKenna as the heroine Christina Parsons.
Kathleen Herald was born in Birmingham, began writing when she was nine, and was first published when she was fifteen. She "never decided to become a writer ... just was one." Growing up in London where she could not have a horse she was obsessed with them: all her early books are about girls who have ponies. After school, she went to Kingston Art School, then Manchester Art School. There she met another student, Mike Peyton, an ex-serviceman who had been a military artist and prisoner of war. He shared her love of walking in the Pennines. They married when she was twenty-one and went traveling around Europe.
When they returned to Britain, Peyton completed a teaching diploma. However, after the birth of her second daughter, she turned to writing full-time: mostly boy's adventure stories that she sold as serials to The Scout, magazine of The Scout Association, and later published in full. She began writing as 'K. M. Peyton' at this time; 'M' represented her husband Mike who helped create the plots.
The Peytons loved sailing, and her first books were on that subject; soon, however, she returned to her 'first love', horses, and began to write what became the Flambards series. When Peyton became involved with horse racing, she used those experiences as further inspiration for writing.
Fidra Books has reissued Fly-By-Night and its sequel, The Team (Ruth Hollis series). Oxford University Press, Usborne Publishing and David Fickling Books also publish her work.
Writers who cite K M Peyton as an influence include Linda Newbery, whose young adult novel THE DAMAGE DONE (2001, Scholastic) is dedicated "to Kathleen Peyton, who made me want to try".
Flambards was published in Italian, German, Finnish, and Swedish-language editions during the 1970s. WorldCat lists eight other languages of publication for her works in all.