About me
The hunt for my stories has taken me from blizzards in Siberia to deserts along the Silk Road, into jungles, an Italian palace, and pubs in outback Australia.
Along the way, I've written histories, adventure books for younger readers, biography, travel, a textbook on business and cultural relations, texts on writing for secondary and tertiary students, newspaper articles, reviews, children's television scripts, documentary film scripts, briefs for Overseas Aid Programs, and a library of battered research journals scrawled in trains, museums, mountain tops and wherever I could find a place to sit.
My search for the lost city of Lijian became my book,
Black Horse Odyssey, Wakefield Press, 1991. Then a Discovery Channel documentary,
Rome in China, 2005.
When a publisher asked me to write about Australia's most famous hermit,
A Man called Possum, I was fascinated by the story. That journey took me into the Australian bush and the history of a vanishing Australia. I guess that one of the best parts of a historian's job is to travel back in time and rescue people and stories from oblivion.
My
Time Raiders series tells the adventures of some spectacular rescue missions into the past.
I've assessed manuscripts, tutored writing students at Tafe and WEA, was co-editor and writer of
Category-B Magazine,
served on the boards of Come Out Children's Festival and the South
Australian Writers' Centre, taught English at Lanzhou University,
China; and I've spoken at Melbourne Writers' Festival, Voices on the Coast QLD, Somerset Literary
Festival QLD, Newington Literature Festival NSW, Meet the Writer SA,
ALEA, National English and History Teachers' and corporate conferences.
And in my own professional 'history', I lectured on children's literature at Flinders University, was a regional literacy coordinator for schools, TV presenter for
Channel Niners and edited anthologies.
Awards
- Visiting Fellowship in History, University of New England
- Virgiliana Medal, Italian Encyclopedic Institute, for identification of Lijian
- Christina Stead Award for biography 1994, runner-up; No Bed of Roses
- N.S.W. Premier's Award 1999, Shortlisted - Children's Book Council of Australia Notable Book 1999; A Man Called Possum (co-author Max Jones)
- CBC Notable Book - WAYRBA (WA Children's Choice) - KOALA (NSW Children's Choice); Devil's Island
- Young Adult Library Services Association, Best Audio Books for Young Adults 2003; Devil's Island,
- Literature and film writing grants.
Memberships
- Australian Society of Authors
- South Australian Writers’ Centre
True Confessions: