Jackie French
“When I was a kid my favourite spot was up a mulberry tree. There was one branch wide enough to lie on and I could pick mulberries while I read, which is why my favourite book still has mulberry stains on it. It’s name is Karalata by Mary Grant Bruce. It was Mum’s book before I got it, and published in 1942. Books back then had soft thick paper and the illustrations looked like photos, but more beautiful. It was about an English girl evacuated to Australia who captured a Nazi spy with the help of an Aussie soldier, but mostly I think it was about ‘Karalta’, a farm near the beach. I loved ‘Karalta’ even more than the story. These days I have my own ‘Karalta’- it has a swimming hole in the creek, not a beach, and a mulberry tree. But this summer I’ll be reading down at the creek- until the wombat finds me, anyhow. Wombats like books too. They are interesting to chew.”
About Jackie:-
Jackie wrote her first children’s book Rainstones in a desperate attempt to earn $106.40 to register her car, while living in a shed with a wallaby called Fred, a black snake called Gladys and a wombat called Smudge. It was described by the editor at HarperCollins as the messiest, worst spelt manuscript they’d ever received. The messiest was due to Smudge the wombat who left his droppings on the typewriter every night; the spelling was due to the fact she is dyslexic. She recommends all beginning writers to misspell their first book with a wombat damaged typewriter – at least that way it stands out of the pile! The book was accepted (also shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Award and CBC Younger Reader’s Book of the Year).
Jackie has been a full time writer and wombat negotiator ever since.
Her latest books are: Christmas Wombat (with Bruce Whatley); A Waltz for Matilda; Nanberry: Black Brother White; Queen Victoria’s Underpants (with Bruce Whatley); and Flood (with Bruce Whatley).
“Here’s hoping you have a great summer holiday rich in all the worlds a book can take you too, lots of love, Jackie.”
