Elfie Donnelly

Elfie Donnelly (born 14 January 1950) in London is a British-Austrian author, who has written numerous books and radio dramas for children. Her major works are Bibi Blocksberg and Benjamin Blümchen.

Donnelly spent her early childhood in Rugby in the English Midlands, and moved to Vienna in her later childhood. The daughter of an Irish father and an Austrian mother, she started a career in journalism already in her youth. In Vienna, she worked as a texter in the news agency APA, where her mother had also worked. In 1973 she moved to Berlin, married Peter Lustig (Löwenzahn/ZDF) and started writing Hörspiele (audio dramas) for children. She won the German prize for youth literature with her first book. In the 1980s, she became a disciple of Indian mystic Osho. At present she lives with her current husband, author Paul Arató, in Ibiza. Donnelly's two grown-up sons live in Austria and America.

At age 26, Donnelly published her first book: Servus Opa, sagte ich leise, a story of a small boy telling about the death of his grandfather. The book won the German youth literature prize and the Hans-im-Glück prize in 1978. The book about the accompanying TV series won the Adolf Grimme prize in 1979.

Two of her most famous series are Benjamin Blümchen ("Benjamin Blossom"), which deal with the adventures of the talking elephant Benjamin and his little friend, the boy Otto, and Bibi Blocksberg, a series about the adventures of a young cheeky witch. Since 1977, Donnelly has written 65 episodes of Benjamin Blümchen and 40 episodes of Bibi Blocksberg. After seven years, she sold the rights to the works and moved to Majorca. The Benjamin Blümchen audio cassettes have sold over 54 million copies. Summer 2007 marked the 30th anniversary of the series.

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