Background
Wilkinson was born in Melbourne, the daughter of prominent children"s author, Carole Wilkinson, and film and television sound recordist, John Wilkinson.
Wilkinson was born in Melbourne, the daughter of prominent children"s author, Carole Wilkinson, and film and television sound recordist, John Wilkinson.
She attended Spensley Street Primary School and Mac.Robertson Girls" High School and has referred to her high school self as "a bit of a nerd".
She has also written for several publications, including The Age, and managed insideadog.com.au, a website for teenagers about books, as part of her role at the Centre Foreign Youth Literature at the State Library of Victoria until January 2011. Heavily involved in drama, in Year 7 she played Aphrodite in a musical version of The Odyssey. Wilkinson has spoken of her love for the work of Diana Wynne Jones, David Almond and Lewis Carroll in interviews.
She has also revealed that Shaun Tan is her favourite illustrator.
She has been quoted as saying: "My favourite books would be Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Foundation There by Lewis Carroll. Oh, and Love That Dog by Sharon Creech.
And The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt. Do I have to stop there?".