Deborah Lisson was born in Croydon, England, and came to Australia as a migrant in 1962. Her home is in Bunbury, Western Australia.
Her first novel, The Devil’s Own, was published in 1990 and was short-listed for the CBC Children's Book of the Year Award in 1991. In the same year it also won the West Australian Premier's Award. Since then two other books of Deborah’s, A Place of Safety and Red Hugh, have also won this award.
Nearly all Deborah's books have an historical theme. She says she enjoys the detective work involved in researching historical novels and the challenge of 'bringing the past to life' for young readers.
Though she sees herself primarily as a 'storyteller', there is also an important theme running through Deborah's work. She believes in the saying that 'those who fail to learn from the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them’, and invites her readers to draw parallels between the events portrayed in her books and those occurring in the world today.
Deborah lists the following personal details:
- Age: as old as my tongue and a little bit older than my teeth (my grandmother’s favourite saying).
- Family: husband Richard, five children, eleven grandchildren.
- Pets: three cats, three goldfish and the army of parrots, galahs and doves that comes to the bird feeder in our garden.
- Hobbies: shopping, fishing, travelling and doing historical research.
- Favourite place: Lough Eske in County Donegal, Ireland.
- Favourite music: traditional folk music.
- Favourite book: John Brown’s Body, a novel in verse about the American Civil War by Steven Vincent Benet.
- Favourite children's author: Rosemary Sutcliffe.
- Favourite food: white Castello cheese.
- Pet hates: rejection slips; having to get up early; people who haven't learnt from the mistakes of history.
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