Duncan Ball's blog

Tasmania's East Coast

2012-01-30T21:56:00.000+11:00

I'm convinced that Port Arthur on Tasmania's South East coast was a terrible place when it was a prison in the mid 19th century. And the Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority who run and maintain this now-ruined settlement do everything they can to give a casual visitor like myself a feeling for what life must have been like in the prison's heyday. In addition to all the tours and activities the management provides, each visitor is given a playing card which is then linked to information about a specific prisoner. In effect, I adopted a long-dead prisoner. Mine was very young when he was transported from England for a minor crime but that's all I can remember because I was soon distracted by the stories of other prisoners. And I confess that, rather than take all this history in tow I was further distracted by the natural beauty of the place on a glorious day. I must have watched too many episodes of Grand Designs because soon I was thinking, "Let's see now, some recycled hardwood beams supporting a new slate roof. A glass wall across the north side. My study would be there in the corner looking out on the water. I'd allow tourists in but only on weekends..."

It was a simple plaque with a list of names that hit like a hammer blow. This is a memorial to the victims of the massacre that began in the now-demolished Broad Arrow Cafe. On that day in 1996 thirty five people lost their lives and twenty one were wounded when a gunman opened fire. For those of us living in Australia at that time the shock is still fresh in our minds. Unlike the prisoners of long ago, these were people were easy to relate to. They were people like us visiting the ruins of the prison colony to learn a bit more about Australian history.

Until last year, Port Arthur was the prime tourist destination in Tasmania. It's since been overtaken by the MONA, the Museum of Old and New Art, in Hobart. I'd heard good things about this imaginative building and its equally imaginative art collection but nothing prepared me for how original it really is. Parts of the collection is confronting but the friendly staff make sure that everyone knows where not to take the kids.

Below is a bit of the outside of MONA. Much of the building is deep underground. The Museum allows visitors to photograph the artworks but not to publish them on the Internet so all I can show you is the queue of people waiting to get in.

My son and grandsons live in Tasmania so that's a good enough excuse to visit, but we usually also manage to take in some of the spectacular scenery of the coast, the woodlands and the mountains. On this trip we wended our way up the east coast from the bottom of the Tasman Peninsula, where Port Arthur is, to the Bass Strait in the north.

This is the tessellated pavement at Eaglehawk Neck. I always thought that square or octagonal rocks like these were the result of lava cooling in just the right way but these aren't volcanic but sandstone. Somehow the cracks formed with the movement of the earth's crust around them.

Here is some typical coastline of South Eastern Tasmania.

Cape Raoul is at the far southeast of the island.

We didn't see any Tasmanian Devils but Tassie is "the road kill capital of Australia" and some of the many mangled roadside remains may have been Devils. We didn't stop to inspect them as we'd have interrupted crows having dinner.

In Bicheno the weather was wild so, tempting as it was, swimming was not an option.

Here we found a baby fairy penguin hiding in a crevice in the rocks. Hopefully its mother eventually found it before a predator did.

There isn't much rainforest left on the east coast of Tasmania. The photos below were taken on a walk through, St Columba Falls Reserve, one of the surviving pockets. We recognised the tree ferns as Dicksonia antarctica but didn't have a hope of naming the many species of smaller ferns clinging to them.

This flowering gum in Bridport on the north coast may not be a Tasmanian native but I couldn't resist including a photo.

Picos de Europa

2012-01-18T17:06:00.003+11:00

While hiking in the Picos de Europa National Park in northern Spain, we didn’t expect to see a Cantabrian Brown Bear, an Iberian Wolf, an Iberian Lynx or a Cantabrian Chamois and it’s a good thing we didn’t expect to because we didn’t. We also didn’t see a European Wildcat, a Genet, a Pyrenean Desman (a little mole-like mammal) or any of the seventy-odd mammals that live in these dramatic mountains. But we did see some interesting birds including Griffon Vultures circling above us.

Our plan was to walk the Cares Gorge hiking trail at a time of year when this very popular walk wouldn’t be a conga line of walkers. So we went in October when it is invariably cold, often rainy and when we’d have the trail to ourselves. As it turned out, it was sunny and hot (none of the locals had seen it this hot in October) but, thankfully, there were very few other walkers.

The young Dutch hitchhiker we picked up on the way into the park said that he spends much of his free time hiking around Europe but that the unique scenery of the Picos keeps drawing him back. Much more dramatic than the Dutch Alps apparently.

The scenery is both spectacular and unique. The Cares Gorge trail is relatively easy but probably not for people with vertigo and no parachute. Sadly, we had to turn back before getting to the end thanks to a heavy cold I’d picked up a few days earlier. One more grudge walk to add to the list but one I can't wait to do.

Even in the wilds of the Picos you're never too far from a cool drink.

Christmas Parrot

2011-12-23T11:07:00.000+11:00

In the story "Selby's Christmas Parrot" in the book Selby Santa (No. 15 in the Selby series), Selby discovers a male Christmas Parrot, one of the rarest birds in the world, in Bogusville Reserve. It is so rare that only one other is known to exist, a female in the National Zoo. The Christmas Parrot is red and green and has a silver crest on its head like the star on a Christmas tree. I won't ruin the story by telling you what happens but I wanted to say that if ever there was a candidate for a real Christmas Parrot the Australian King Parrot would do nicely (but for the lack of a silver crest).

King Parrots aren't rare here on the east coast of Australia and a few of them visited us recently in a house where we were staying in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.

Still on the subject of Australian parrots, our local florist has a pair of Rainbow Lorikeets that range freely around his shop. The other day I photographed Rocky who was nibbling his way though all the herbs unable to settle on the one he liked best. Or maybe he just liked them all.

Merry Christmas and Season's Greetings to all.

Crabby Christmas

2011-12-18T16:43:00.018+11:00

For a bit of Christmas tackiness I didn't have to go further than Darling Harbour in Sydney, which is on one of my usual walking routes. I have to admire the inventiveness of the Darling Harbour decorators.

My favourite was Crabby Santa at the Sydney Aquarium.

Followed by Clinging-On-For-Dear-Life Santa. (Making do in the absence of a chimney.)

And then Luminary Santa.

He Knows-When-Your-Are-Sleeping-and-He-Knows-When-You're-Awake Surveillance Santa.

Submarine Santa.

Merry Ferry Christmas Santa.

My Sister Has a Big Black Beard

2011-12-04T16:39:00.000+11:00

Okay, so it wasn't a brilliant idea. My thought was to record a particular poem from my book of funny poetry, My Sister Has a Big Black Beard, in various locations around the world. Then I'd choose the best clip to put on my website. Or I'd do a mash-up of all of them. But I never worked out how to do a mash-up and I couldn't choose the best clip because there were so many things wrong with all of them.

I think you'll see what I mean. (Please be kind with your comments. I'm only a beginner.)

The first was recorded on an island on the coast of Maine in the USA on a cool and blustery day:

And this one in the home of friends in Madrid, Spain:

This is in front of Les Invalids in Paris:

Here I am in front of the British Museum:

And on the River Thurne on the Norfolk Broads in England (I know, I should have stood still.):

At Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris:

In the Picos de Europa, Asturias, Northern Spain. (Another beautiful location.):

Next time I'll take a cinematographer and sound recordist and ask George Clooney to do the reading.

Note: The poem, as it appears in the book, is actually called "My GM Family" (As in Genetically Modified). I wish I'd called it "My Sister Has a Big Black Beard" after the first line. Too late now.

The book is beautifully illustrated by the multi-talented, award-winning, cartoonist, painter, veterinarian and singer Kerry Millard.

The book is always better than the film.

Another note: sorry if those of you who subscribe couldn't see the photos on the emails sent to you. I don't know why that happened or how to fix it.

Premiers' Reading Challenges

2011-12-02T16:06:00.001+11:00

Last Monday I was a guest at the end of year reception for the NSW Premier's Reading Challenge at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. The NSW premier, Barry O'Farrell, spoke about the program and the importance of getting kids reading.

Every state in Australia now has a premier's reading challenge. They are non-competitive programs aimed at encouraging kids to read. The programs are as follows: Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Western Australia and New South Wales.

They have been a huge success and, needless to say, children's book authors love them.

First prize for the most passionate and funny speech went to the author Deborah Abela, Patron of the NSW Premier's Reading Challenge. (I just made up that prize but, as always, she gave a great speech.)

And there were lots of kids from around the state. Some of them had been up since four o'clock in order to get to the reception. Kids who didn't have to get up early were some from nearby Ultimo Primary School, pictured here with Deborah Abela and myself.

Some good news relating to my previous blog: my fellow travellor, Richard Tulloch, informs me that the City of Paris has now removed the lipstick---along with Selby's signature and paw print---from Oscar Wilde's tomb. They have also placed a protective glass barrier around the monument to keep it from being kissed again any time soon.

Unhappily Ever After

2011-11-22T14:28:00.000+11:00

Poor Oscar Wilde. He wrote some very clever plays, stories, lots of poetry and one novel but died very poor tragically young. Among his writings was a short collection of fairy tales in which the main characters---as someone commented---lived "unhappily ever after". I guess that could have been said of Oscar as well. The best-known of these tales are The Happy Prince and, my favourite, The Selfish Giant. Resist it as I try, this one always leaves me dewy-eyed at the end.

Oscar Wilde is buried at Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, apparently the most-visited cemetery in the world. Years ago when I was a university student in Paris I spent many pleasurable hours wandering the streets of this huge cemetery discovering the tombs of famous artists, statesmen, scientists, military leaders, nobility and just plain rich people. Because so many of the tombs are above ground it's like being in a city of the dead---creepy but beautiful and filled with wonderful sculpture. Another attraction back then is that it didn't cost anything to get in. Well, not if you were alive. And it's still free today.

Recently I was in Paris again and visited some of my old (excuse me) haunts in Pere Lachaise. One of those is Oscar's tomb. This great stone monument with an angel on it (I think it's an angel) is the work of the sculptor, Jacob Epstein. Sadly, since my first visits, the tomb has been loved to death. At first it was lipstick kisses and then other graffiti followed. Now it's covered in messages from admirers. Maybe Oscar would approve but I believe the City of Paris is about to clean it up and restore it to the original. I'm not sure how they intend to keep it from being graffitied again.

Frederic Chopin's fans are much more respectful of his memory. No lipstick kisses here, just fresh flowers.

Even past rocker Jim Morrison is shown more respect from devotees of The Doors.

Who is this? Possibly a writer because he's holding a book. It shouldn't be long before he's joined by a writer holding an e-reader.

Sleeping on a bed that's too small for you can be fatal.

This monument "To Death" is one of the most haunting in the cemetery. Upstairs are a couple heading for the underworld and staring into the void ahead. Behind them are people soon to follow and none too happy about it. I'm not sure what's going on downstairs but the one lying on the ground doesn't look well.

So put Pere Lachaise on your list of places to visit if ever you're in Paris.

By the way, if you noticed a "Selby" graffito on Oscar's tomb, neither Selby nor his millions of fans around the world put it there---I did. Well, I didn't actually write it on Oscar Wilde's tomb but I couldn't resist adding it electronically to the photo. I guess this makes me a would-be graffitologisto.

Lunch at Sheila's

2011-11-17T15:46:00.000+11:00

Five women and one strange-looking child sat silently at lunch. None was moving except Sheila Myers, ceramic artist and the creator of these arresting figures. She dashed around making last-minute adjustments to her "friends" before the opening of the her joint show that evening with fellow ceramicist, Barbara Mason.

Sheila explained that the women were modelled on friends and herself. That's her seated in front of her real self and pouring from a blue bottle.

The place was the Inner City Clayworkers Gallery, a ceramic artists' cooperative. My wife and I often stop in especially to see the annual teapot exhibition. (It's amazing what some people use to make their tea.) We'd never met Sheila and were surprised to learn that three ceramic cicadas we'd bought from the gallery were also her creations.

Impressive as the women at lunch were it was the lunch itself---all ceramic---that got is in. It was so realistic that we could smell it. Bread, cheese, noodles, and some very realistic lettuce leaves.

It wasn't long before we hurried home to a somewhat less crunchy lunch and tea straight from the teabag.

Our cicadas.

KOALA is 25!

2011-11-09T10:01:00.000+11:00

This year the Kids Own Australian Literature Awards (KOALA) had its twenty-fifth birthday at the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre in the western suburbs of Sydney. But it was not just a birthday party but the annual awarding of the New South Wales' children's choice awards.

It's the first time KOALA had its awards day at the venue but, hopefully, not the last. There's a big stage and seating for over 300 kids. As usual the KOALA Committee did all the work and we authors and illustrators swanned in, were made a fuss of and had a good time. Full marks to the KOALA people, especially Val Noake and Antonina Fieni (both of them past presidents of KOALA) as well as the present president, Kris Fegent for all their hard work.

The schools attending made outlandish hats this year for the authors and illustrators. My own (the best of the lot) was made by the marvellous milliners and mad hatters of Bringelly Public School. The Queen would be jealous.

In the spotlight were (from L to R): Bob Graham, me, Belinda Murrell, Pat Flynn, Deborah Abela, Oliver Phommavanh, Andy Griffiths, Lisa Shanahan, Catherine Jinks, Robyn Bavati, Richard Tulloch, Kim Gamble & Anna Fienberg. To see who won the prizes have a look at KOALA 2011 AWARDS.

Here with me is the immediate past president of KOALA and teacher librarian extraordinaire, Antonina Fieni, and her band of admirers.

We all had our own personal assistants for the day. Mine was the very companionable Katelinh. Many thanks, Katelinh, for your excellent guidance!

A small confession: The authors and illustrators were all asked to speak about the best or worse birthday present we'd ever received. I couldn't think of anything so I told the story about how I'd met my wife on a bus and paid her fare when she didn't have the right change thereby getting to talk to her etc. Now I have to admit that some of this story was a bit exaggerated. Factually inaccurate, would be another way of putting it. Actually, it was more false than true. Okay so the whole thing was made up. Well I am a storyteller, after all. (Now I don't feel so guilty.)

A Very Different Spain

2011-10-30T18:30:00.000+11:00

Think of Spain and you think of bullfights and flamenco music but you won't find either of these in the north. A few weeks ago my wife and I were in the beautiful town (they call it a city) of Cangas de Onis in the province of Asturias on the north coast of Spain. There's a heavy celtic influence here where bagpipes are a traditional musical instrument and cider is the local drink. It's mountainous, cool and very rainy not unlike other celtic places: Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany.

I spent a (cold, wet, rainy) summer in Asturias as a boy, swimming in the almost-unswimmably cold waters of the Bay of Biscay. And I often wore wooden clogs when I left the house because of the deep mud in the streets. The roads in villages are paved now and farmers wear wellies when they work in their fields but you can still buy clogs at the markets. I wonder if anyone still uses them.

My wife and I just happened to be in Cangas de Onis on the day of the annual Feria de Quesos---the Cheese Festival. This area is known for its wonderful cheeses, especially Cabrales blue cheese. In a big tent in the centre of town a panel of big cheeses were awarding prizes to the best cheeses while we made our way around sampling so many little bits that, by the time we left, we were too full to even think about eating lunch.

It's a pity we couldn't have brought a round or two back to Australia with us but of course quarantine rules forbid it.

Selby Sprung

2011-10-25T14:45:00.001+11:00

My latest book, Selby Sprung, is now in the shops!

This is the sixteenth collection of Selby's adventures - and possibly the last.
The Selby saga began when I got a phonecall from Selby. He said that he was a dog but that he'd learned how to talk "people talk". He was keeping it a secret from his owners, the Trifles, and from everyone else. But he wanted me to write about his adventures. Of course I leapt at the chance. The first Selby book, Selby's Secret, was published in 1985.

It's been great working on Selby's books so it'll be hard to give it up. The decision to stop wasn't entirely mine. Earlier this year Selby rang to tell me about his latest adventures and I wrote them down as usual. Then he said, "I want you to call this book Selby Sprung." "Why," I asked. "Did someone find out your secret?" "Nothing's happened yet," he said, "but it will. I have a feeling that something terrible is going to happen to me and my secret will get out."

Months later the last Selby story appeared on my doorstep. It was written by Selby himself in his own paw-writing. It's the very last story in the book. I'd better not say any more or I'll ruin it for you.

Anyway, since my last blog post I've been travelling in the USA, the U.K., France and Spain. I was enjoying myself so much that I didn't have time to write any blogs. There was also the problem of finding WiFi (pronounced "wee-fee" in France and Spain) to get online. Now that I'm back to a humdrum writer's life and will have nothing to write about except my trips to the shops so I'm going to cobble together some travel stories from the past two months and post them along with some of the many photos I took. So watch this space.

Maine wildlife

2011-09-19T02:05:00.001+10:00

This island in Maine is teeming with wildlife and I've been tiptoeing around, camera in hand, trying to get photos. Many of the animals, such as the skunks and raccoons that get into our garbage, are nocturnal. Some, like the deer, are around in daytime but shy of tiptoeing nature photographers. Whether nocturnal, diurnal or crepuscular, I haven't had much success in capturing the local wildlife.

I did manage to get a Monarch Butterfly to pose and also a very patient Great Blue Heron.

And a Gray Squirrel stayed still long enough to allow me to get a snapshot.

A (harmess) little Garter Snake seemed unconcerned.

My breakthrough came on a visit to the famous hiking, camping and clothing store, L L Bean, where there were bears, moose, deer, skunks, badgers, raccoons, bobcats, coyotes, fisher cats (all stuffed) and tanks filled with (live) fish. L L Bean is not only famous for its wonderful merchandise but for the fact that it's open for business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and, 365 days a year---that is, all the time. Very convenient for insomniac shoppers and wildlife photographers.

The Real Selby in Maine

2011-09-11T04:21:00.000+10:00

A walk around the island where I'm staying in Maine in the USA. With me is the real Selby, my sister's dog. Whether he can talk like the Australian Selby we don't know but we've been telling him jokes to try to get him to laugh---or even smile.

Selby took an interest in a chipmunk but the chipmunk quickly disappeared under a rock. Selby just wanted to play but there was no convincing the chipmunk of this.

The local herring gulls are bigger than the seagulls we see in Sydney. Here's a young one before its feathers changed to the usual blue grey an white of the adults.

Four wild turkeys crossed the road in front of us and I followed them into someone's back yard. Unfortunately they were too shy for me to get close to them but I did manage to get some photos before they went off into the woods.

One of the local stores has more than just clothing and fishing tackle.

Back at the cottage my great niece poses with part of the evening's meal. (Those are rubber bands holding its claws closed.)

Beyond Book Week

2011-09-03T04:18:00.000+10:00

Children's Book Week, for me, is always frantic and usually stretches to about six weeks but it's great to get out from behind the computer and talk to real kids. And it's a good way to try out my stories and poems. It's one thing to guess what kids might like and another thing to see what does or doesn't work. In an ideal world I'd read every story I write to kids before I send it to my publisher. But the world is never ideal and there's never time to do so.

One of the many lasting images of this year's Book Week was when I managed to coax three good sports from a school I visited into posing wearing beards and holding copies of my poetry book, My Sister Has a Big Black Beard. Thanks, girls!

Immediately after Book Week my wife and I flew to the east coast of the USA to spend a bit of down time on an island on the coast of Maine where we are now.

The Maine coastline is dotted with fishing villages and holiday cottages. City people escaping the summer heat have been coming here for a hundred and fifty years to cool off.

Before moving to Australia many years ago my family were "summer people" here, so for me it holds a lot of wonderful childhood memories. There are no beaches, no surf and the water's too cold to swim in but it's very beautiful and I love it - probably because I spent my summers here as a child. Whenever I come here we eat lobsters, as that's what the local fishermen catch.

Children's Book Week

2011-08-26T17:22:00.000+10:00

Children's Book Week is always a busy time for me and, once again I had schools to go to every day. All of them were Sydney area schools including Eastwood Heights PS, Scots Prep, Ravenswood Junior School, Blakehurst PS and St Mark's PS in Drummoyne. Selby came along a couple of times to help out. It was great fun and I couldn't have asked for more helpful staff or enthusiatic kids. Here are just a few images from the visits.

Lead up to Book Week

2011-08-14T16:44:00.000+10:00

Children's Book Week is still two weeks away but it's already a very busy time for children's book authors and illustrators. Kris Fegent and Catherine McClellan at Lateral Learning have booked me to speak at lots of schools. I've been visiting schools nearly every day, meeting lots of kids and having a great time.

In the past week I've been to the following Sydney area schools: The Emanuel School (Randwick), Christ the King P. S., (North Rocks), Cambridge Park P.S. (Cambridge Park) and this week I'll be at Blaxcell St P.S. (Granville), Milperra P. S. (Milperra) and St Philip Neri P. S. (Northbridge).

I don't have any parent & school sanctioned photos to show for this year yet. The photo above is a poster from a day of talks I gave two years ago at Caddies' Creek P. S. in Glenwood in the western suburbs of Sydney.

Margaret Throsby interview

2011-07-24T21:05:00.000+10:00

On July 12th I was interviewed on Margaret Throsby's ABC Classic FM "Mornings" interview show. This was a great thrill for me having listened to Margaret on the radio ever since I moved to Australia thirty seven years ago. It gave me the opportunity to talk about my life and to play some of my favourite music. I confess that I was nervous ahead of time but, in the event, it couldn't have been easier. Margaret such a great interviewer which made it a real delight. And of course she's as gorgeous as ever.

The main focus for me was Monkey Baa's play, "Emily Eyefinger", which has been playing at the Seymour Centre in Sydney. It's now touring New South Wales, starting this week in Wagga Wagga and Griffith and finally ending up in Melbourne. The play has been great fun, and I didn't have to do anything---well, apart from writing the Emily Eyefinger books. The success of the play, and it's almost sold out everywhere, is all down to the very clever people at Monkey Baa.

If you'd like to hear the ABC interview click here. And you'll get to hear the third (rondeau)movement of Francois Boieldieu's Concert for Harp and Strings in C into the bargain. How often does that happen? (Apparently this piece is one of Margaret's favourites too.)

Click here to see "Emily Eyefinger's" complete schedule. "Emily Eyefinger" be back in Sydney---Parramatta and Penrith---for a short season.

The play is on! Full marks to the Monkeys!

2011-07-13T16:45:00.000+10:00

The Monkey Baa Theatre Company's play "Emily Eyefinger" is now on at the Seymour Centre in Sydney. It's an amazing piece of kids' theatre based on my Emily Eyefinger books but all credit goes to Monkey Baa for writing the script and producing this wonderful play.

Dannielle Jackson is the ever-adventurous Emily Eyefinger.

Christopher Childs-Maidment plays her timid friend Malcolm Mousefinder.

Sandra Eldridge is the intrepid archeologist-adventurer, Aunt Olympia.

Douglas Hansell plays the evil Arthur Crim who is out to get Emily.

Tim McGarry is the wonderfully eccentric Professor Mousefinder and Arthur Crim's hapless criminal side-kick Doug.

Here we are cutting the very special Eyefinger cake on opening night.

The play will be at the Seymour Centre till Saturday July 16th.
Bookings: 9351 7940

After that Emily Eyefinger tours to these venues:

Wagga Civic Theatre 26 - 27 July
Griffith Regional Theatre 28- 29 July
Riverside Theatres Parramatta 2-5 Aug
Joan Sutherland PAC Penrith 6-9 Aug
Orange Civic Theatre 11-12 Aug
Dubbo Regional Theatre and Convention Centre
15-16 Aug
Jetty Memorial Theatre Coffs Harbour 18-19 Aug
Arts Centre Melbourne 23-27 Aug

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Photographs by Heldrun Lohar and Patrick Boland.

Stanton Library Literary Awards

2011-06-16T10:03:00.000+10:00

Every year for the past few years I’ve been involved in judging the Bill Coppell Young Writers’ Awards run by the Stanton Library in North Sydney. I have a great affection for this library as it was the first library my family and I used when we moved to Australia many years ago. I spent many happy hours there---some of them spent researching my first book---so it’s always good to be invited back. And one of my sons now works there.

This year there were five of us judges, each judging stories and poems from a different age range. Mine were the works of eleven and twelve year olds and I was hugely impressed by the kids’ writing. As always, it was hard to pick the winner, the Highly Commended, the Commended and to award various merit certificates. Pictured above are the winners of the top awards in each of the age categories. From left to right: Becky Bunting, Elizabeth Lim, Niall Gifford, Madeleine Zurowski and Phoebe Cook. (I’m the old guy at the back.)

A Week of Crow Dancing

2011-06-12T12:38:00.000+10:00

It’s not by accident that someone thought up the name Woop Woop for an imaginary place somewhere in the Australian outback. Australia has a number of real double-barrelled place names such as Yarra Yarra, Gool Gool, Mooney Mooney, Kurri Kurri, Gumly Gumly, Book Book and many more but Wagga Wagga must be the best-known of all of them. I just spent a week visiting schools in and around Wagga Wagga. Wagga, as everyone calls it, is a country town which declared itself a “city” in 1946. It’s a mystery why a lovely town would want to associate itself with the crime, grime and ugly tall buildings of a city. I can only guess that someone had just visited New York, New York, and thought they’d get in on a good thing.

After exhaustive research I found that the word “wagga” means “crow” in local Wiradjuri Aboriginal language. Said twice it means a lot of them. So before the place was a town and then a city there must have been lots of crows in the trees around the Murrumbidgee River that flows through it. But further pains-taking research (isn’t Google fun?) revealed something else. “Waggawagga” may actually have come from the word to dance or “to reel like a drunken man”, possibly a description of the local indigenous dance. Either way, Wagga Wagga could do well to adopt the New York, NY, slogan: “a name so nice, you’ve just gotta say it twice.”

While I was in Wagga there was a move afoot to start a Dame Edna Everage Museum devoted to the “housewife gigastar’s” memorabilia. According to her creator, Barry Humphries, Dame Edna was born Edna May Beazley in Wagga Wagga. Would such a museum attract hordes of Dame Edna frock-watchers to Wagga? Or would Wagga be the butt of Dame Edna’s humour along with her long-time Melbourne suburb, Moonee Ponds?

During a very cold week, I couldn’t have been more warmly welcomed by the kids. I read my stories and talked about my writing. In some of my sessions I brought out “Amy” the Amazon Twitching Spider (see the story “Selby Spiderdog” in the book Selby Splits). Amy usually delights my audiences but, very occasionally, she frightens someone. It’s a natural reaction to a big hairy spider even if you’re not an arachnophobe.

In Temora, Amy terrified little Elizabeth (pictured). Fortunately, Elizabeth plucked up her courage and before long she was handling the spider like a seasoned spider-wrangler.

Close to nature's heart

2011-05-20T13:55:00.000+10:00

"Keep close to Nature's heart...break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean." Or so said John Muir, the Scottish-born American writer and conservationist. Having just spend three days doing day-walks in the Blue Mountains, I couldn't agree more.

The days were clear and cool and in the evenings my wife and I retreated---with spirits washed, dried and neatly ironed---to a log fire in a cottage to read and listen to the possums scurring across the roof. Okay so the logs were fake and it was a gas fire but it was still warm and toasty.
We are lucky in Sydney to be so close to so many national parks including: Ku-ring-gai Chase, Royal National Park, Lane Cove National Park, Sydney Harbour National Park and theBlue Mountains National Park where we were. And being there mid-week when it wasn't school holidays, we had it all to ourselves. Much as we love the city, it is good to get out into nature and replace the city's sounds with bird calls. The only high-rises in sight were built by termites.

It was also a good time to try out my new digital camera. Try as I did to get a good photo of a Supurb Lyrebird--and there were plenty of them about---all I managed was one blurry photo. (One of these days I'll read the manual and learn how to use the camera properly.) But, feeling sorry for me, various other birds came by and posed, including some Sulphur-crested Cockatoos and a male and female Australian King-Parrot.

Norman Lindsay Festival 2

2011-05-09T11:25:00.001+10:00

In my previous post, on the Norman Lindsay Festival in the Blue Mountains, I omitted to mention all the fun things the Festival provided for the kids on Sunday, the kids day, including some very creative face painting. Yes, there were the usual cat faces etc but this was the first dog face I'd seen. Certainly the first Selby face.

This year the organisers had an event for adults onSaturday evening. This consisted of a panel chaired by long-time children's books editor and publisher Margaret Hamilton and with cartoonist Dave Hackett, mountaineer Lincoln Hall and myself talking about our lives and our books

Lincoln Hall (in green in the photo) was in the news a few years ago when he "died" on Mount Everest. At least he was left for dead but revived in the night and was eventually rescued. He's written extensively about this as well as other high-altitude mountaineering adventures.

I've always been fascinated by mountains and mountaineers. Here I am hiking with two friends in Switzerland at the age of fifteen. I'm on the right in both photos. (Tell me I haven't changed.) These days I'd rather enjoy the mountains from the warmth and safety of my loungeroom curled up with a book like Lincoln Hall's harrowing account of his near-death experience, Dead Lucky.

Norman Lindsay Festival

2011-04-13T14:28:00.000+10:00

I never read Norman Lindsay's famous book, The Magic Pudding, until until I was an adult so I have no idea if I'd have liked it when I was a kid. But I'm grateful to Norman---who was a writer, illustrator, painter, sculptor and newspaper and magazine cartoonist---for writing the book because without it there wouldn't be a Norman Lindsay Children's Literature Festival. The festival is held every year at his home at Faulconbridge in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney and is now the Norman Lindsay Gallery & Museum which is run by the National Trust. This year I was invited, as was "Cartoon Dave" Hackett, writer Frances Watts and illustrator David Legge. Frances and David did their own special pirate song and dance number while talking about their new picture book, Captain Crabclaw's Crew. During a break between my talks, I got to handle "Princess", a diamond python. I didn't realise it when the photo was being taken but Princess was more interested in a branch of the tree above me than in me. Fortunately, her handler managed to unwind her and get her back down.

A welcome release

2011-04-04T14:07:00.000+10:00

Authors' lives are not the most exciting lives. In my case, I spend a lot of time at my desk either writing or answering emails or just doing all the many non-writing things that have to be done. In the days before I finished writing Selby Sprung I realised that for three days I hadn't set foot outside my house. But the last week I got out and about.

On Tuesday I went to the opening of The Face of Australia, a portrait showby members of Portrait Artists Australia. the portrait that Jules Sevelson did of me is in the show and it was the first time I'd seen the completed painting. He did a wonderful job. If you're in Sydney you can see the show at NSW Parliament House. It's on from Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm until April 29th---and it's free. It would be a good time not only to see all the paintings in this show but to tour this lovely old building.

Last wednesday I was invited to speak at the Newington College Literature Festival . I had an audience not only of Newington boys but boys and girls from other schools. It was a lot of fun. Festivals are a great time to talk to kids but also to catch up with other authors and illustrators.

Books in Homes

2011-04-01T12:38:00.000+11:00

There's a charitable organisation in Australia and New Zealand called Books in Homes. Their mission it is to give away new books to kids who might not have any books of their own in order to promote the love of reading and to improve kids' literacy skills. Publishers donate books to Books in Homes and the books are then given to the kids at a presentation ceremony with the help of a "Role Model". I'm a Books in Homes Role Model so I am sometimes asked to visit a school and to help give out the books. Recently I was at Alexandia Park Community School in Sydney where we gave away boxes and boxes of books. Here's a photo of me with, Ms Young, the wonderful librarian at the school and a few of the kids holding some of the books they were given.

My very own portrait

2011-03-23T16:01:00.000+11:00

My good friend and children's book writer Moya Simons is married to a painter named Jules Sevelson. One day, not long ago, Jules asked me if he could paint my portrait. I'd never had my portrait painted before and I was delighted. He asked me what I liked to do when I wasn't writing and I said that I loved bushwalking, especially in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. I sat for Jules twice while he sketched and painted and here's the result. He said he wants to work on it just a bit longer to get the colours right but I think it's already a fantastic painting---and it looks just like me!

Selby Sprung again

2011-03-18T13:19:00.000+11:00

I've just finished writing Selby Sprung, the 16th (and final?) book of the Selby series. I've been over and over the stories and now it's with my publisher, HarperCollins.

They will correct any mistakes and then send it back to me for further editing. Another copy of the manuscript is now with Allan Stomann, the wonderful illustrator of all the Selby books. He's been drawing Selby and his world for twenty-five years. Selby Sprung will be published in August.

Who can tell me what moth this is? It wandered into my house for just long enough for me to take a photo and then it flew away. I did a bit of a search of the internet and found out that there are about 22,000 species of moths in Australia. Of course this one might be a very common one so you might know it's name.

Writing Selby Sprung

2011-03-06T18:13:00.000+11:00

I'm getting very close to finishing the sixteenth Selby book, Selby Sprung. And when I'm working hard, my office is as messy as my bedroom was when I was a kid. There are stacks of books and papers all over the floor. Jasper has found a new sleeping place, a file box filled with Selby stories. The papers in front of him are the drafts of the stories in the Selby book. I wonder if he reads them when I'm not watching.

Out and about

2011-02-25T11:06:00.000+11:00

Disaster! My computer hard drive fried! It just suddenly quit and there was nothing I could do to rescue the things that were on it. I'd backed up most of the important things a week before the crash but some emails, were lost. So if you wrote me and didn't get answer, please write again.

I've been madly trying to finish the latest---and maybe the last---Selby book, Selby Sprung. When my computer crashed, I lost the latest changes to the stories but, fortunately, Selby rang me and helped me get the stories right. So no Selby stories were lost. I should have the book finished soon.

One thing that Selby refuses to tell me is why he wanted the book to be called Selby Sprung. Did he really get sprung? Did people find out his secret? He said that he'd tell me that last story just before the book is published. I can't wait to hear about it!

Australia has some of the most beautiful birds in the world. These are rainbow lorikeets and they're very common here in Sydney. And they're not shy. This group let me get very close to them to take this picture.

Every year in November the suburb of Glebe in Sydney has a street fair. The whole of Glebe Point Road is jammed with people listening to bands, buying wonderful food and clothing from street stalls. Here are a couple of people with their clothes painted to look like the sky.

The New South Wales Premier's Reading Challenge is a program to get kids reading lots of books. A number of my books are on their reading list so I was invited along to the launch of the program. Here's a picture of me, Selby and Snow White at the launch.

Happy New Year!

2011-02-06T13:40:00.000+11:00

I hope you had a good break and that you have a great 2011. And happy Chinese New Year!

Much has happened between my last blog entry and now, so much that it's hard to remember everything. One of the more memorable events was the KOALA (Kids' Own Australian Literature Awards) ceremony. Here I am talking at the awards ceremony.

Most of my time recently has been taken up in writing the 16th Selby book, Selby Sprung. The book was almost finished when I suddenly had an eye problem and needed an operation. That was last week and I'm still recovering but I'll be back to normal soon and working on the last bits of the Selby book. Selby hasn't told me his final adventure yet. He said he was going to wait and tell me at the very last minute. I'm worried that it might mean he's about to give away his secret. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. Or maybe he knows that he's about to be found out. Maybe the Search for Selby Society is about to spring him. Come to think of it, maybe that's why he wants me to call the book Selby Sprung.

Just now I'm waiting for the weather to change into something that's bearable. But although it's been incredibly hot in Sydney we haven't had the floods and cyclones that Victoria and Queensland have had to deal with.

Book Week

2010-10-24T10:03:00.000+11:00

Book Week for many authors is not just a week - it's usually many more because we get asked to speak at a lot of schools and libraries. This year I was busy for about six weeks and I still have more schools to visit.

I was invited up to Port Macquarie and talked in some schools there and in Kempsey. I had a great time meeting the kids and reading from my Selby and Emily Eyefinger books. It was also a chance to read from my latest book of funny poems, My Sister has a Big Black Beard.
Here I am at a little country school near Kempsey. With me are Georgia and Samuel, a couple of great school captains.

Below I'm talking to kids and parents at the Port Macquarie Public Library. I hope you enjoyed Book Week at your school.

A trip to a museum

2010-08-20T12:38:00.000+10:00

I'm just back from a trip to the United States where I was visiting friends and relatives. It was a wonderful trip and one of the best parts of it was seeing a museum that I used to visit when I was little. The museum is at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In it are rooms and rooms filled with stuffed animals. I found some of these quite scary when I was a kid and there were parts of the museum I used to tiptoe through for fear that animals would suddenly come to life and attack me. But it was a delicious kind of scariness like the kind you get from reading a scary story that isn't too too scary.

In another wing of the museum there are floors of exhibits about the Indigenous peoples of North and South America: American Indians and Eskimos. My favourites were the little models of villages with tiny people in them.

There was one in particular that I loved - a diorama of Native Americans from the American West, doing a dance. I remember pressing my face to the glass and trying to imagine what life must have been like for them. On my visit I found this diorama again and relived a bit of my childhood.

Another favourite part of the museum is the glass flower collection. It may sound boring but they are most fascinating and real-looking flowers all made from glass. Years ago before photography, science students used these to study plants. Glass-makers in Germany made these life-like models for Harvard University. You can see from the photos how fine the work is and how real the flowers look.

Here's a link to the Glass Flowers collection at Harvard, and the Wikipedia entry on them.

The Perils of Prince Percy of Pomegranate

2010-07-04T17:10:00.001+10:00

There wouldn’t be many Australian writers who have had one of their plays performed in Cree. This has recently happened to me so I’m feeling very special at the moment. Cree is the language of many of the indigenous peoples of northern Canada and a group of kids in northern Saskatchewan recently performed a play of mine, “The Perils of Prince Percy of Pomegranate”. Admittedly the play remained mainly in English but it was re-written to incorporate a lot of their cultural language as well. And this is how it came about:
Some years ago I wrote a book of plays called Comedies for Kids. Some copies of the book were distributed in various countries, including Canada. Since then I’ve occasionally had requests from teachers for permission to perform some of the plays.

In my September 2009 “Duncan’s Diary” entry on my website I wrote about a wonderful drama teacher in Canada, Lana Patterson, working with indigenous kids in Saskatchewan. The kids had put on a play, “Murder at Muck-up Mansion”, from my Comedies for Kids. Thanks to her work and all the wonderful actors it was a huge success. The production won many awards at regional level which qualified them to compete at the provincial level where they came home with their first provincial trophy!
And this year it’s happened again! Lana re-worked another of the plays from my Comedies for Kids, “The Perils of Prince Percy of Pomegranate”. She added the Cree words and renamed it “The Perils of Chief Cimagasiw of Ciciganihk”, and the kids once again won many awards both in their region and in the Saskatchewan provincial awards. Well done, Lana! Well done, kids!

This book of plays is now out of print now so I’m continually surprised when I hear that the plays are still being performed. There must be some very tattered copies out there. And “The Perils of Prince Percy of Pomegranate” seems to be the most popular play in the book, perhaps because it’s got such a large cast so it's good for school groups. In my “Duncan’s Diary” entry for March 2010 I reported on a production of the same play by kids at Golden Grove Primary School in South Australia.

Walking around the city

2010-06-23T09:45:00.000+10:00

I'm a walker. Whenever I have a chance to do so, I walk. Occasionally I do some bushwalking but if I don't have a chance to get out of the city I just walk around where I live which is in Sydney. And Sydney is a great city for walking. I will never run out of new places to go but sometimes just a walk around the inner city is the most rewarding. On the weekend I walked to the Art Gallery of New South Wales which is about one hour's walk from where my wife and I live. While the collection of paintings isn't anything like the great art galleries of Europe and the USA it has a wonderful collection of Australian paintings. It also has special exhibitions such as the two that are currently on show: one of photographs by the American photographer, Alfred Stieglitz, and another of English Victorian paintings and sculpture. One of the wonderful things about the Art Gallery of NSW is that it's free. Sometimes there's a charge to see the special exhibitions but you can skip those and see everything else for free. The Art Gallery also has lots of special events such as the concert that was happening when I was there on Sunday.

And when I go to the Art Gallery I often go to the Botanic Gardens as well. This time was no exception. In addition to the huge collection of plants and flowers there are always other things to see. This time I spent a while watching a colony of stingless Australian bees going in and out of their nest in a log. Australia has a huge variety of insects that don't exist anywhere else in the world.

The Botanic Gardens has a big problem with grey-headed fruit bats, or "flying foxes" as we usually call them. There is a big colony in the trees in the gardens and it's not good for the trees or the plants below the bats. They're beautiful animals and they are native so no one would want to get rid of them but, at the same time, the people who run the Gardens wish the bats would find somewhere else to live.

June 18, 2010

2010-06-19T16:38:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone, I'm in the process of designing this blog and it'll be a few days before I've got it the way I want it. When I'm not playing around with things like this I'm working on the next book about Selby, the talking dog, and another one about Emily Eyefinger, the girl who was born with an eye on the end of her finger. I'll tell you more about my latest book, a book of funny poems called, "My Sister Has a Big Black Beard", later.

Here's a photo of my cat, Jasper, who likes to help me with my writing.

Read more about me and my books at my website.