Jackie French
| Jackie French AM |
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|---|---|
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| Born | Jacqueline Anne French 29 November 1953 Sydney, Australia |
| Occupation | Author |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Genre | Juvenile fiction, historical fiction, gardening books |
| Notable works | |
| Spouse | Bryan Sullivan |
| Website | |
| www |
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'Warya "Jackie" French AM (born 29 November 1953) is an award-winning Australian author who has written over 140 books and has won more than 60 national and international awards. She is considered one of Australia's most popular and awarded children's authors, writing across a number of children's genres including picture books, history, fantasy and history fiction.
She is also an author of numerous books on ecology, gardening, pest control, wombats, other wildlife and hens as well as fiction for adults. She is also a regular contributor to newspapers and magazines around Australia including the Australian Women's Weekly and the Canberra Times. She also presented gardening segments on the long-running Australian TV series Burke's Backyard.
French began writing Rain Stones, her first book for children, when she was 30 years old, living in a shed and in need of money to register her car. Her editor said it was the messiest and worst-spelt manuscript ever submitted (partly because Jackie was dyslexic, but also because the letter e on her typewriter wasn't working because of droppings left on her keyboard by a wombat), but the book ended up being shortlisted for the Australian Children's Book Council of Australia award for the Younger Readers Book of the Year and the NSW Premier's Award.
French's books include both fictional, factional and non-fictional accounts of Australian history including Nanberry: Black Brother White, Tom Appleby, A Day to Remember, created with Mark Wilson, A Waltz for Matilda, the first in an eight-volume series, The Girl from Snowy River, The Road to Gundagai, The Night They Stormed Eureka and Flood and Fire, both created with Bruce Whatley.
Her non-fiction books include the eight-book Fair Dinkum History series that covers 60,000 years of Australian history and is published by Scholastic and Let the Land Speak: A history of Australia - how the land created our nation.
A number of her books are also part of the Australia Curriculum, including Nanberry: Black Brother White, Diary of a Wombat, Flood, A Day to Remember (with Nark Wilson), Baby Wombat's Week (with Bruce Whatley), Pennies for Hitler, The Girl from Snowy River and the work she is possibly best known for, Diary of a Wombat, created with artist Bruce Whatley.
Her most recent works include To Love a Sunburnt Country and The Beach they called Gallipoli (with Bruce Whatley), Fire (with Bruce Whatley) and The Hairy Nosed Wombats Find a New Home (with Sue Degennaro) . French's royalties for that book are donated towards wombat preservation and research.
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Wikipedia