When I was a child, my family didn’t have a television, so I read a book a day. Our expeditions to the local library were legendary!  I remember my mum reading ‘Little Grey Men’ to me, a book first published in 1942 and which features gnomes living on the bank of an English stream. I still remember lying there, listening to her read, with the thrilling feeling of my imagination soaring. I get that same feeling today when I read a great kids’ book.   

I went on to become a journalist at ABC Radio – where I won a Walkley Award – and a researcher/producer at ABC TV. That was exciting work – I interviewed lots of interesting people and travelled to places like Timbuktu in the Sahara Desert and a jellyfish lake on the Pacific island of Palau. But I’d always imagined writing a book one day.

So I resigned from the ABC, and moved to a rainforest valley in northern NSW – where it started raining the day I moved in and didn’t stop for four months. My first novel (for adults) unsurprisingly features lots of rain and mud! ‘Salt Rain’ was shortlisted for a few awards including the Miles Franklin Award. I went on to write two more novels, ‘His Other House’ and ‘Promise’.

Once I became a mother and started reading to my daughter, I was reminded how much I love children’s books – the thrill of endless possibility and sense of a vast world out there. ‘Big Magic’ is my first book for young readers and it includes all the things I have always loved reading about: a brave kid, the power of nature, growing up, parallel universes and circus.

These days I live on one acre near the town of Mullumbimby in northern NSW, with my partner Alan and our daughter Amelia. We grow some of our own fruit and vegetables, following the principles of permaculture.  We have a dog, Louie – a much-loved, shaggy cavoodle-schnoodle – who likes to lie near me while I write.