A PUBLISHER has paid a moving tribute to a children's author who battled breast cancer to write her novels.

Siobhan Dowd, of West Oxford, died at Sobell House hospice in Headington in August, aged 47.

Her best known work was teen/adult crossover book A Swift Pure Cry, the story of a pregnant girl in Ireland in 1984.

Ms Dowd's publisher, David Fickling, based in Beaumont Street, said: "Siobhan was seriously ill but she was always very clear - it wasn't the cancer making her write.

"She was a person of immense humanity, warmth and ability, already in the full measure of her talent. She made words sing."

Ms Dowd's third book, Bog Child, will be published in February, and her final novel, Solace of the Road, in 2009.