Wrightson, Patricia (1921-2010), was one of Australia’s most prominent writers of fiction for children. Wrightson won the Children’s Book of the Year Award from the Children’s Book Council of Australia four times, including the award for her first children’s book, The Crooked Snake (1955). The novel was the first of several autobiographical works about her childhood in New South Wales. Those books include The Bunyip Hole (1957), The Rocks of Honey (1960), The Feather Star (1962), and Down to Earth (1965). Wrightson first gained international recognition with A Racecourse for Andy (1968), a sympathetic story about a boy with mild intellectual disabilities who believes he has bought a racecourse for $3.
Wrightson wrote a series of books that focus on the mythical role of Aboriginal spirits and guardians of the earth. In An Older Kind of Magic (1972), ancient spirits living under the earth emerge in the evening to help save Sydney’s Botanic Gardens from land developers. Other books in the series include The Nargun and the Stars (1973) and A Little Fear (1983), both of which won Book of the Year Awards.
Wrightson wrote a trilogy of fantasy novels, three books, aimed at older children, that tell of the adventures of an Aboriginal boy, Wirrun. The books were published together as The Book of Wirrun in 1983. The individual titles are The Dark Is Coming (1977), a Book of the Year winner; The Dark Bright Water (1978); and Journey Behind the Wind (1981).
Alice Patricia Wrightson was born on June 19, 1921, in Lismore, New South Wales. She was a secretary and hospital administrator from 1946 to 1960 and an editor of the New South Wales School Magazine from 1964 to 1970. Wrightson received the Hans Christian Andersen medal in 1986, given every two years to an author whose complete works have made a lasting contribution to children’s literature. Wrightson died on March 15, 2010.
