Category: Australasian authors
-
Stafford, Liliana
About the author Liliana Stafford (b.1950) was born in Sussex in the UK, but moved to Australia, where she’s lived ever since, when she was 20. She started writing ‘seventeen years and six children later’, and has written picture books and a series of horse stories. The family owned horses for some years, and Liliana…
-
Rubinstein, Gillian
About the author Gillian Rubinstein was born in England, and spent her childhood between her mother’s home in Nigeria, an English village, and boarding school. After studying languages at Oxford, she worked as an editor, journalist and film critic, and emigrated to Australia in 1973. Her first novel for children, Space Demons, was published in 1986. She has…
-
Rooke, Daphne
About the author Daphne Rooke was born in Transvaal, South Africa, on 6th March 1914, and moved to Australia in 1946. Her mother, Marie Knevitt, was a writer, as was her uncle, and she worked as a journalist in South Africa. In 1937, she married an Australian, Irvin Rooke, and moved to Australia. When he…
-
Roland, Betty
About the author Betty Roland (1903–96) was born Mary Isabel Maclean in Victoria, Australia on 22 July 1903 (she changed her name to Betty Roland in 1951). She married Peter Davies at the age of 19, and had a son. She worked as a journalist and playwright, and in the late 1920s met Guido Baracchi,…
-
Phipson, Joan
About the author Joan Phipson (1912–2003) was born in Warawee, New South Wales, and spent her childhood travelling between Australia, England and India. She was educated at Frensham School, and in 1936 was commissioned by the headmistress, Winifred West, to start the Frensham Press. Their first publication was Frensham student Rosemary Dobson’s poems. Joan Phipson…
-
Petersen-Schaefer, Karin
About the author Karin Petersen-Schaefer was born in Melbourne in 1955, and moved to Sydney, where her pony books are based, in 1982. She worked with handicapped children before working as a database manager in the Sydney Melanoma Unit, and has been involved with horses for as long as she can remember. Her horse, Miss…
-
Pearce, Margaret
About the author Margaret Pearce was born in a suburb of Melbourne. She is a compulsive writer, having started as a compulsive reader; writing, however, pays considerably better than reading. She started as a copywriter, and had her first book published after 18 months of trying. She has written ever since, and now self publishes…
-
Patchett, Mary Elwyn
About the author Mary Elwyn Patchett (1897–1989) was an Australian author who lived most of her life in Britain. She wrote under the names Mary Elwyn Patchett, M E Patchett and Mary Patchett. The Bibliography of Australian Literature mentions that she is supposed to have written under the name David Bruce, but no works have been found…
-
Ottley, Reginald
About the author Reginald Ottley (1909–85) was born in London. He left London at the age of fourteen to go to sea, and after travelling the world working as a deck boy, cook and fireman’s peggy, settled in Australia in 1924. There he worked on a grazing property in New South Wales, which he used…