Christmas in July
Bronwen and Katherine of Show and Tell had a ‘Christmas in July’ party at Books Illustrated Gallery last Thursday; what a great evening (topped off with Graham Davey as Santa distributing rather lovely chocolates!)
I came home thinking about how lucky I am to be a children’s author, because you simply couldn’t belong to a nicer bunch of people than were gathered in the Anns’ lovely gallery. There were old friends I wanted to chat longer to, people I hadn’t met before and clicked with immediately, and people I didn’t get a chance to meet who looked like interesting, fun people to meet another time. We don’t go up to the city that often, but when we do I come home stimulated and vowing to go up more regularly in the future.
And of course, whenever I managed to glimpse it behind the crowd of talkative authors, there was the art: the picture book illustrations for which the bookshop gallery is named. They were something else I’d have liked longer to study, especially two of Kerry Millard’s originals for Quincy and Oscar, which I saw in roughs years ago.
Wendy Orr is a Canadian-born Australian writer. Her books for children and adults have been published in 27 countries and won awards around the world. Nim’s Island and Nim at Sea have also become feature films, starring Jodie Foster and Abigail Breslin (Nim’s Island) and Bindi Irwin (Return to Nim’s Island.) Her latest book is Cuckoo’s Flight, a companion to the highly acclaimed Bronze Age novels Dragonfly Song and Swallow’s Dance. Read full bio
