I’m flapping my wings and cooing with happiness right now, because the Real Pigeons are about to land in the US. The first book in the series – Real Pigeons Fight Crime – is being published in the US and Canada by Random House on January 7th 2020. Real Pigeons Fight Crime follows a squad … Continued
Last night I had honour of launching my good friend Leanne Hall’s new book Iris and the Tiger at Readings in Carlton. Leanne has already published a couple of YA novels, but this is her first novel for younger readers and it’s an absolute winner. So much so that I dressed up as my favourite scene from … Continued
As a cheerful way to end the year I was recently honoured to see Son of Death included in The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald‘s best children’s books of 2015. Son of Death was noted in the section for middle fiction, along with The Wolf Wilder by Katherine Rundell, The Cat With the Coloured Tail by Gillian … Continued
Hi guys, Just a quick note to let you know I’m appearing at the upcoming Melbourne Writers Festival (hurrah!) as part of the Schools Program and in the general program too. I am pretty excited about it and since I’ll be (mostly) talking about my latest book Son of Death I’ve been sorting through the best props … Continued
Before I started writing Son of Death I immersed myself in the literature of death. If I was going to explore topics of death and mortality through a reimagining of the grim reaper, I wanted to consult the experts first. My first port of call was Ernest Becker, whose Pulitzer-winning book from 1973, The Denial of Death, investigates why and … Continued
This week I had the pleasure of speaking at a special teachers’ night at Readings Hawthorn. The event was the first of a new initiative being run by the excellent folk at Readings. It was great to be involved and equally great that so many school teachers come out for the night. I spoke alongside … Continued
Last Thursday my new book Son of Death was officially launched at Readings bookshop in Carlton. There were blood-spattered cupcakes, skeleton outfits and lots of signed books. What follows is a photo essay of sorts, detailing the book launch and featuring some of my favourite snaps from the night. To begin with here is Leanne … Continued
This is an article I wrote for the Readings blog last week. They’ve kindly allowed me to cross-post it here. Thanks Readings! A friend asked me recently why I’d written a novel about death for children. They asked with eyebrows raised, as if to suggest that the topic of death was surely not an appropriate … Continued