Eric Linklater was born in the Orkney Islands in the north of Scotland. He fought in the First World War and became a war reporter during the Second World War and the Korean War. The Wind on the Moon began as a story Linklater told his two daughters when they were caught in the rain on a walk. The book later won the Carnegie Medal.
The Wind on the Moon is a wartime book - it was published in 1944 - and it dwells on those elements of life in short supply or under threat in Britain, such as food, and liberty, and fun. It is not a prisoner of the time, though, and one of its delights is the cavalier way in which Linklater swings between pure fantasy and the everyday made fantastic -- James Meek Guardian Hand it to your youngest and he will undoubtedly be highly entertained by the saga of Dinah and Dorinda and their misdeeds; give it to your best friend and he will be entertained by the delicate satire on every page The Boston Globe