author
M. I. R. (Mabel Irene Rutherford) Polkinghorne
Known for practical, imaginative books for children and schools, this early 20th-century writer helped turn playmaking and toy-making into lively, hands-on learning. Her work, often created with Ruby Kathleen Polkinghorne, blends craft, drama, and classroom creativity.
1 Audiobook
Toy-Making in School and Home
by R. K. (Ruby Kathleen) Polkinghorne, M. I. R. (Mabel Irene Rutherford) Polkinghorne
About the author
Mabel Irene Rutherford Polkinghorne, who also published as M. I. R. Polkinghorne, was a British author active in the early 20th century. Library and catalog records identify her as born in 1882, and she is best known for educational and children's books written with Ruby Kathleen Polkinghorne.
Their best-known book, Toy-Making in School and Home (1916), presents toy-making as both creative play and practical classroom work. The book links handcraft with learning in a warm, usable way, which helps explain why it has remained visible in library collections and public-domain archives.
The pair also wrote later books including Up Goes the Curtain, a collection of plays for junior schools, and Other People's Houses. Clear biographical details about her life are scarce in the sources I found, but her surviving work suggests a writer deeply interested in children's imagination, education, and making things by hand.