Bruce Atherton

Bruce Atherton was born in 1964 and grew up in Melbourne, Australia, risking life and limb with his sister and four brothers on a billycart called Lightning Runner - later to be the subject of his first picture book, The Billycart Ride. In primary school his report cards were all similar: Bruce can do better. Bruce is easily distracted. Bruce is a disturbing influence in class (in grade five, his teacher tied him to a chair and put half a dozen teaspoons in his mouth to stop him talking). His favourite subject was English. His favourite author was Colin Thiele. His favourite books were Blue Fin and The Fire in the Stone. In secondary school he continued to talk too much. When he was 14 his English teacher, Wally Wintle, ordered him to go to the library and not return until he had read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. To this day, Bruce is grateful to Wally. Throughout his working life, Bruce has held a number of positions ranging from sheep-drench salesman to journalist. In 1988 he started work on The Billycart Ride - a rambling, rhyming text which was roundly rejected by publishers. Twelve years later he cornered international author Bryce Courtenay at a book launch and showed him the manuscript. Bryce thought it had potential - it was eventually illustrated by Keith McEwan and published in 2006. In 2007 it was shortlisted for the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Award. Since then, Bruce has written a junior fiction novel, Al Dentay and the Incredible Spaghetti Machine, and three more picture books - Tough Ol' Teddy, illustrated by Elise Hurst, The Pumpkin Eater from Pondicherry, illustrated by Ben Redlich, and COWZAT!, also illustrated by Ben Redlich. Bruce is currently undertaking post graduate studies in professional writing. He lives in Melbourne with his wife, Kate, and his daughters, Darcey, Grace and Emerson. They all talk a lot.