Anthony Hill – Febuary 23 2020

Anthony writes for children and adults. He worked as a journalist and speech writer, and ran an antique shop with his family before retiring to write full-time. Anthony’s other children’s books include Spindrift and Forbidden (both illustrated by Mark Sofilas), Lucy’s Cat and the Rainbow Birds (illustrated by Jane Tanner), The Grandfather Clock (illustrated by Mark Wilson), and River Boy (illustrated by Donna Rawlins), a steam boat adventure for young readers, part of the National Museum of Australia’s ‘Making Tracks’ series. This was very much the practice piece for Anthony’s latest historical novel, Captain Cook’s Apprentice, about one of the boys who sailed on the Endeavour. Anthony’s other historical novels include Soldier Boy, about the youngest known Anzac; its companion book, Young Digger, about a French war orphan adopted as a mascot by Australian airmen and smuggled home in 1919; and Animal Heroes, a collection of stories about animals that have served with the Australian armed forces. In recent years Anthony has written a number of animal stories including The Shadow Dog (illustrated by Andrew McLean) about his own dog Sebastian and Harriet (illustrated by Coral Tulloch) about the 175-year-old Galapagos tortoise who lived for many years in Queensland.

Birdsong – Illustrated by Kay Watts
Oxford University Press, 1988; ISBN 9780195549003
10-14 years
Anthony’s first novel for children, Birdsong, draws largely on his family’s experience of rural life. It is the story of 11-year-old Samuel, who is bored and lonely in the country, until he finds a best friend – an old, bald cockatoo with a broken leg, called Benjamin – caught in a rabbit trap. Sam saves the cocky. He builds Benjamin a house and talks to him (even though the cocky is sometimes rather bad-tempered). In return, Benjamin teaches Samuel the birdsong – the language of poetry – so that Sam can understand all the other birds who live nearby: the magpies, parrots, pigeons and Benjamin’s wife, Gladys.

The Burnt Stick – Illustrated by Mark Sofilas
Viking, 1994; ISBN 9780140369298
7–11 years
This is the fictional story of a boy, John Jagamarra, who was forcibly taken from his Aboriginal mother. This happened to many Aboriginal children of lighter skin colour earlier last century. John Jagamarra grew up at the Pearl Bay Mission for Aboriginal children in the far north-west. It was beautiful there, but it wasn’t home. This is a tale for everyone about the pain of separation, and the strength of the human spirit.