GREAT EDITORS are rarely praised enough. They labour with sharpened pencils in the back rooms of literature, while their authors accept the bouquets.

Miriam Hodgson was one of the most brilliant editors that the world of children’s books has seen, and the writers she worked with can find some consolation for their loss in that her achievement was acknowledged publicly. Winning the 2003 Eleanor Farjeon Award (given for a distinguished contribution to children’s books) meant a great deal to Hodgson, although with characteristic modesty she managed to transform her acceptance of the prize into admiration for the wonderful fictional worlds of her writers, and gratitude that she had been allowed in.

Robert Westall dedicated The Kingdom by the Sea: “For Miriam, who understood,” and all those who worked with her know the extent of that understanding. Its all-important genesis was a profound love and respect for the children who would be reading the books, and the unswerving conviction that they should always be left with a sense of hope.

Before children’s literature enjoyed its relatively new renaissance in terms of public awareness, Hodgson recognised its importance in the development of young minds. For her there was no finer calling than producing good books that would inspire and challenge as well as entertain. So the editorial process was an alchemy; Hodgson’s skill was to understand, encourage, discipline and shape her authors with that ultimate gold in mind. It was not always easy — as indicated by Jean Ure’s dedication to Plague: “To Miriam who fought me womanfully every inch of the way.”

Born in 1938, Miriam Rosenthal and her brother Tom (former chairman and managing director of André Deutsch Ltd) were brought up in Cambridge. Seeing the ominous signs, their parents Erwin and Elizabeth Rosenthal had fled Berlin in 1933, and Erwin later became Reader in Oriental Studies at Cambridge. Miriam was educated at The Perse School for Girls, and went on to read history at St Anne’s College, Oxford.

Always a passionate and enthusiastic reader, it was natural for Miriam to seek a career in publishing, and she began in adult books, at Ernest Benn, which later became part of Associated Book Publishers. It was there that she met Julian Hodgson, whom she married in 1969. Appropriately enough she made the shift into children’s books when her daughter, Elinor, was born, working part time for Methuen Children’s Books. It was there that she found her vocation, and she became children ’s fiction editor in 1986.

Explaining in an interview why she had remained with the same publisher since 1979 (Egmont, previously Methuen and then Mammoth), Jamila Gavin said: “I know when I am in good hands. I have Miriam Hodgson. What more can a writer ask for than to have an editor who believes in you and is prepared to guide you through your weaknesses and draw out your strengths?” At a time when marketing people seem to have taken over the publishing industry, editorial integrity and loyalty are undervalued, and writers not nurtured as they once were, — such a statement will be seen as the rare accolade it is.

As part of the citation for the Farjeon Award, Annie Dalton wrote: “She has a rare ability to befriend her authors whilst continuing to challenge us on every level. Her respect for the creative process is unique in my experience and her sensitivity is downright supernatural.”

Some of Hodgson’s most famous authors went on to win the Carnegie Medal, the Nestlé Smarties Prize, The Guardian Children’s Book Prize and the Whitbread; writers she encouraged and inspired include Anne Fine, Caroline Pitcher, Michelle Magorian, Michael Morpurgo, Carlo Gebler, Theresa Breslin, Bel Mooney, Jenny Nimmo and many more.

But when she came across a new writer whose work she wanted to promote, she was as attentive as with a prizewinner, and did not hesitate to call on one of her “stars” to help with a jacket quote. Nobody ever said no to Hodgson. What is more, the new writer would certainly be made to feel that he or she was the only person this busy editor was dealing with, and would be taken by the hand and coaxed through the editorial process in the most friendly, even motherly, manner. They would learn to love the meticulous marginal notes, the small ticks, comments of “Lovely!”, and occasional plaintive protest because a character was meaner than she thought strictly necessary.

Her commitment was to the long-term development of an author, not to trends or to sales, although her knowledge of publishing was realistic and professional.

Hodgson defined editing as “the touching of minds”. Her mantra, remembered fondly in the offices of Egmont Books, was “author care, author care, author care” and she saw the editor as very much the “servant of the writer”. She believed that the editor represented the reader, and as such might suggest that aspects of the text be made clearer, the ending more satisfying, the pace to speed up here and there. Yet at no point should the editor ever feel the most important figure in the exercise. Hodgson saw her function as helping the writer to produce the best book possible, in order to make the reader “laugh, cry, feel compassion, feel excitement”.

The dialogue with the author might be testing at times, for editors can miss the point and writers display that form of insecurity which appears arrogant. But all those who worked with Hodgson remember her quietness, her gentleness, the modesty with which she made suggestions. She offered friendship as well as editing, and felt closely involved with the joys and tribulations in the lives of her special authors throughout the years.

It delighted Hodgson beyond measure that children’s literature was at last accorded its true value, thanks largely to the achievements of writers such as J. K. Rowling, David Almond and Philip Pullman. She commented that her generation of editors never thought to see children’s books reviewed alongside mainstream adult fiction, and adults happy to be seen reading them on the train.

In 1999 she officially retired, although she went on editing a few of “her” writers from her home in Wimbledon. When ovarian cancer was diagnosed, she wished none of those authors to know, and the consummate communicator bore her illness with private courage — and grief. She always said that children “deserve to keep a belief in good defeating evil”, and that spirit of optimism survives her, both in the books she edited and within those as yet unwritten, where her influence will live.

She is survived by her husband and daughter.

Miriam Hodgson, editor, was born on December 10, 1938. She died on November 14, 2005, aged 66.