After being rejected by nine publishers, the author’s first book went on to sell 5m copies, with readers immediately connecting to its depiction of Australian foods, animals and place names
In 1968, Mem Fox was in London, in the final month of a three-year drama course, when she made a note in her journal: “I don’t want to be an actress, I want to be a writer.”
“I was 22 then, and Possum Magic came out when I was 37,” the bestselling children’s author now recalls, at her home in Adelaide. “So I knew a long time before that that I would like to be a writer.”