Elizabeth Honey

Background

Elizabeth was born on February 7, 1947, in Wonthaggi, Victoria, Australia. She grew up on a farm near Wonthaggi in Australia, where her favorite activities were reading books, showing off, drawing, and preparing for a career as a trapeze artist, according to the public website for her publisher, Allen & Unwin.

Education

Elizabeth attended Swinburne School of Film and Television in Melbourne (later to become the Victorian College of Arts).

Career

After art school, Honey traveled through Europe, South America, and the United States, and then embarked on a career illustrating and eventually writing books for children. Illustrating for newspapers like The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, as well as providing stamp illustrations for Australia Post, she discovered she enjoyed illustrating children's books the most.

Honey’s self-illustrated picture books include Princess Beatrice and the Rotten Robber, about a young girl whose love of dress-up and wearing jewelry leads to her kidnapping by the Rotten Robber, and, surprisingly, to lots of trouble for the kidnapper. The result is a “jolly romp of a book,” according to Judith Sharman in Books for Keeps. Honey’s picture book Not a Nibble! tells of a family vacation almost ruined by the fact that little Susie fails to catch a single fish, until the last day when she catches a glimpse of a mother whale with its young. Honey’s watercolor illustrations ably convey the beauty of bright summer days spent by the sea, contended Alicen Geddes Ward in School Librarian, who added: “Not a Nibble! is a book which totally captures for me the spirit of childhood holidays and the cherished days of family life.”

In Don’t Pat the Wombat, illustrated with photos taken by the author’s son, William Clarke, a character known as Exclamation Mark tells the story of a week spent at an Australian school camp under the direction of a bullying teacher. “The interaction between teachers, pupils, loners, and oddballs is vividly brought out and the dialogue is totally credible,” attested Valerie Caless in School Librarian. Honey brings to life another pre-teen protagonist in What Do You Think, Feezal?, in which nine-year-old Bean finds a way to interpret the nefarious goings-on around her by reading Honey’s picture book, Princess Beatrice and the Rotten Robber. Magpies reviewer Kevin Steinberger lauded the author’s insight into the “worldview and vernacular of the preteens” she depicts and concluded that “(Honey’s) young fans will certainly be delighted with her latest novel.”

Achievements

• Elizabeth Honey is known predominantly for her work in picture books and middle-grade novels. She is probably best known for her novel 45 & 47 Stella Street and everything that happened which was a CBCA Honour Book, and since then has written a number of highly entertaining novels, such as Don’t Pat the Wombat, Fiddle-back, Remote Man and Cauldron Bay. She has also written and illustrated a number of picture books, including The Cherry Dress and Not a Nibble which was the CBCA Picture Book of the Year. Her works are lauded by critics for his uncanny ability to capture the essence of childhood through language and image. She became an iconic voice in Australian children's literature.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Ten Blue Wrens

    (Children and adults will enjoy this friendly all-Australi...)

    2011
  • The Ballad of Cauldron Bay

    (In this heartwarming tale of growing up, a crew of neighb...)

    2004
  • 45 and 47 Stella Street

    (Here's 11-year-old Henni's original version of what her g...)

    1995
  • What do you think, Feezal?

    (A funny modern princess-in-a-tower story about a poor lit...)

    1997
  • Not a Nibble

    (Holidays at the beach mean camping, swimming, finding cra...)

    1996
  • Fiddleback

    (Twelve-year-old Henni offers a fast, funny, action-filled...)

    1998
  • Remote Man

    (A supercharged, international, Internet adventure. Ned is...)

    2000
  • To the Boy in Berlin

    (Henni lives in Melbourne, Leo lives in Berlin. Different ...)

    2007
  • I'm Still Awake, Still!

    (Fiddy is small and busy and quick. And at bedtime, he’s s...)

    2008
  • That's Not a Daffodil! 2011
  • The Moon in the Man 2003
  • The Cherry Dress 1993
  • What's the Time, Mr Wolf? 1988
  • Honey Sandwich 1993

Views

Elizabeth's advice to aspiring authors is “Get stuck into your plot early on. Don’t waffle on for pages then have all the action in the last couple of paragraphs.”

Interests

• reading, music, movies, theater

Connections

Elizabeth's husband is a graphic designer. They have two children.

References

• Contemporary Authors, Vol. 184
  2000