At the age of 21, Penelope Farmer was contracted for her first collection of short stories, "The China People". One story originally intended for it proved too long to include. This was rewritten as the first chapter of "The Summer Birds" (1962), her first book featuring Charlotte and Emma Makepeace. A second book, "Emma in Winter", with Emma as the main character, followed in 1966. "Charlotte Sometimes" was first published in 1969 by Harcourt in the United States, and by Chatto & Windus in the UK in the same year.