Elizabeth Honey

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Elizabeth Honey
Elizabeth Honey in Venice, 2013.jpg
Honey in 2013
Born (1947-02-07) 7 February 1947 (age 77)
Wonthaggi, Victoria, Australia
OccupationWriter, illustrator, poet
Genre Children's literature, children's poetry, children's theatre
Website
elizabethhoney.com

Elizabeth Madden Honey [N 1] (born 7 February 1947) [1] is an Australian children's author, illustrator and poet, best known for her picture books and middle-grade novels. Her books have been published internationally. [1] She lives in Richmond, Melbourne.

Contents

In 1997, she won the Children's Book of the Year Award: Picture Book for Not a Nibble. She also received the Prize Cento and the Young Australians Best Book Award (YABBA) for 45 & 47 Stella Street and everything that Happened. [2] In 2001, she was the recipient of the Australian Wilderness Society Environment Award for Children's Literature. [3]

Life and career

Honey was born in the coal mining town of Wonthaggi in Gippsland, Victoria. [1] She grew up on a dairy farm, the third in a family of four. A sickly child she became an avid reader. [3] After the family moved to a farm near Geelong she attended high school at Morongo Girls' College.

In Melbourne, Honey studied art at Swinburne Technical College, [4] where she was in the second intake at Australia’s first film school.

‘The predominate traits shared by the students were artistic talent, youth and high spirits, and boundless confidence and optimism. It was the ‘Swinging Sixties’ after all and art students were in the vanguard of taste, fashion and ideas…’ [5]

The mix of characters and talents at Swinburne had a profound influence on Honey, and the unstructured nature of the course which gave students the licence to experiment. They absorbed films from around the world at the Melbourne Film Festival and staged the student revues ‘Braindrops’ and ‘68mm’.

‘They eat, sleep and drink the revue, with an intensity that is almost alarming.’

Laurie Pendlebury, Head of Swinburne Art School [6]

Honey worked briefly at the ABC Channel 2, then in film, The Naked Bunyip and The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, advertising at W J Haysom then George Patterson, followed by extensive travel. Honey began work as a freelance illustrator, [1] [3] her commissions including drawings for newspapers, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, and stamps for Australia Post. From 1976 to 1986 she published a calendar of illustrations, [3] but found children's book illustration the most rewarding work. In 1988, Princess Beatrice and the Rotten Robber [7] was published, her first book as both author and illustrator. Publisher, Rosalind Price [3] at Allen and Unwin encouraged her work and ‘she has since become an iconic voice in Australian children's literature, going on to write and illustrate a breadth of award-winning children's novels, poetry collections, as well as picture books for children of all ages. She is known for writing that is "characteristically humorous and inventive, and features outspoken characters”. [8]

Honey draws on family life, evident in her first poetry book Honey Sandwich. [9]

Looking for my sandals.

Looking for my hat.

I spend all my life

doing that.

In 1995 her first novel 45 + 47 Stella Street and everything that happened was published. It was translated into many languages and became the first in a series, the most recent From Stella Street to Amsterdam, [10] was published in 2020, twenty five years after the first book.

Works

Picture books

Poetry

Novels

Stella Street series

  • 45 + 47 Stella Street and Everything that Happened (1995)
  • Fiddle-back (1998)
  • The Ballad of Cauldron Bay (2004)
  • To the Boy in Berlin with Heike Brandt (2007)
  • From Stella Street to Amsterdam (2020)

Activity books

Collaborations

Works as illustrator

Theatre

Mr Bleak and the Etryop premiered at the Melbourne Comedy Festival (2007). [12] It told the story of confused Mr Bleak, who in his drive for productivity, discovers poetry after the intervention of exuberant schoolchildren. The play toured Victoria in 2008.

A musical theatre production of I'm Still Awake, Still!, [13] inspired by the songs by Honey and Sue Johnson, [11] directed by Jessica Wilson, [14] premiered at the Melbourne Arts Centre in 2011, and toured the US and Australia in 2014. The Age review noted "..the clever blend of comedy and song, which celebrates in the zaniest possible way the playfulness of children, while giving them a rather sophisticated glimpse into the world of music." [15]

A theatrical adaptation of That's not a Daffodil, [16] [13] adapted from the book by Honey with Görkem Acaroglu [17] premiered in Melbourne in 2015, before going on to tour Victoria in 2017. It tells the story of a young boy who is given a daffodil bulb by the old Turkish gardener next door. [18]

Awards and honours

1994

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2005

2008

2009

2012

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References

Notes

  1. ↑ Her first name in German-language publications is usually given as "Elisabeth" (e.g. Amazon)

Sources

  1. 1 2 3 4 "A Guide to the Elizabeth Honey Paperes" (PDF). Lu Rees Archives, University of Canberra Library. September 2009. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  2. ↑ "YABBA Winners 1990s". List of YABBA winners. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "About Elizabeth Honey". Elizabeth Honey official website. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  4. ↑ "Swinburne History" . Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  5. ↑ Paterson, Barbara (1996). Renegades : Australia's first film school : from Swinburne to VCA. Helicon Press. p. 45. ISBN   0646234951.
  6. ↑ Paterson, Barbara (1996). Renegades : Australia's first film school : from Swinburne to VCA. Helicon Press. p. 60. ISBN   0646234951.
  7. ↑ "About Princess Beatrice and the Rotten Robber by Elizabeth Honey". 16 April 2019. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  8. ↑ "Elizabeth Honey Bio". Austlit website. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  9. ↑ "Honey Sandwich" . Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  10. ↑ "From Stella Street to Amsterdam" . Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  11. 1 2 "Sue Johnson" . Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  12. ↑ "Mr Bleak and the Etryop". The Australian Live Performance Database. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
  13. 1 2 "Jumpleads Productions" . Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  14. ↑ "Jessica Wilson" . Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  15. ↑ "Review: Still Awake Still delights little music lovers". The Age website. 2 October 2014. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  16. ↑ "Mr Bleak and the Etryop". That's Not a Daffodil Review. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
  17. ↑ "GÖRKEM ACAROĞLU, Theatre maker" . Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  18. ↑ "Empathy starts early: 5 Australian picture books that celebrate diversity". 4 February 2021. Retrieved 16 February 2021.


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