Mem Fox

Mem Fox is an Australian author. She is an important and famous children’s author and without her, Australian children’s literature would not be like it is today. Mem Fox was born in Melbourne, 1946. At six months old, she went to Africa with her parents where she grew up on a mission, in Zimbabwe. Her life has been very interesting. She now lives in Adelaide in an apartment. Mem Fox was born in Melbourne, in 1946. Her fathers name was Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge which is also the name of her second book. Miss Nancy who is a character in this book is her mother.
In the mid sixties, totally unaware of how it was to live overseas and be involved in acting, she went to a drama school in London and spent three happy years speaking Shakespeare, singing songs by The Beatles, wearing mini skirts and dying her hair, a habit that she has never grown out of. She has changed a lot since then.
In 1969, Mem Fox married an Englishman named Malcolm. In 1980, they migrated to Adelaide, in South Australia. She and Malcolm have had a happy life together. Their only child Chloe, to whom Possum Magic is dedicated, was born in 1971 and is now a journalist.

Wilfred, Gordon McDonald Partridge.

Possum Magic, a picture book of hers, sold over a million copies in its first ten years of publication and is still in hard back. This took her on the road to fame. Since its publication in 1983, Mem Fox has written over 25 picture books for children. Among her personal favourites, Wilfred, Gordon, McDonald Partridge, Koala Lou, Time For Bed and Wombat Divine. Her latest book is Who Ever You Are. It is illustrated by Leslie Staub who is another famous person in the world of literature. Mem Fox has also written many books for adults including her autobiography, and three books for teachers: including the acclaimed Radical Reflections: passionate opinions on teaching, learning and living. Many of her books are successful in the U.S.A., in particular Time For Bed, which was the best-seller for over a year. It can be seen that she is not only famous but important as her work has contributed a lot.

It is again a surprising fact about Mem Fox that writing is her second love. Her first love is teaching to which she admits she is addicted to. She has also been involved in teaching teachers since 1973 and is much in demand as a keynote speaker at national and international literacy conferences. She is passionate about literacy and its development.

Half her life until the end of 1996,was teaching literacy studies with enthusiasm and enormous happiness as an associate professor at Flinders University in Adelaide. She is now a ‘real’ writer for the first time, and a highly regarded literacy consultant in Australia and the U.S.A.

For all her work and effort, she has been presented with many awards including the 1990 Dromkeen medal for distinguished services to children’s literature; a1991 Advance Australia award for outstanding contribution Australian literature, the 1993 Australia Day Honorary Doctorate of letters from the University of Wollongong, Australia, in 1996.

For all these reasons, Mem Fox has truly become not only a famous but a very important person in the world of literature. This has been of great benefit to Australia and to young readers like us who enjoy her work greatly.