Penny Matthews writes . . .
Some of my earliest memories are of books: fat parcels of books from the library in Adelaide (my family lived in the country and we belonged to the Country Lending Service); books as presents for birthday and Christmas; old school library books with soft, thick pages and varnished covers. I read everything I could get my hands on. Even when I was quite young, I wanted to be a writer.
I lived on our family sheep farm with my parents and my older brother until I was twelve. It was a wonderful, happy time. Then in Year 8 I had to go to school in Adelaide, and that meant I couldn't live at home any more. Somehow I got through it all and went on to university, where I studied English (piles of books to read!) and decided that I wanted a career in publishing.
I've been working as a book editor for many years now. Along the way I went overseas, came back to Australia, married and had babies—a girl and a boy, now grown up. At present I edit children's books for Omnibus, and I write them too. I now realise that this is what I have always wanted to do, and it's odd but nice that all my life choices have pointed me in precisely that direction.
My first published children's book was Moving On, a picture book that described the tiny country school I went to as a child. My latest picture book is also based on my own childhood: it's called A Year on Our Farm, and it's all about the things that happen on a typical small farm over twelve months. The illustrations, by Andrew McLean, are so beautiful and so real that they pull me straight home and make me feel that I'm ten years old again. I've also written a novel, Potato Baby (another country story!), and three Solos: The Best Pet, The Sea Dog and Jack's Owl.
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