S. A. Wakefield

Last updated

Sydney [Sam] Alexander Wakefield (13 May 1927 - 22 August 2009) was an Australian writer. He was best known for the Bottersnikes and Gumbles series of children's books.

Contents

Biography

Sydney Wakefield was born in Australia to English immigrant parents on 13 May 1927. In 1945 he enlisted and was commissioned into the 2nd Punjab Regiment. After the end of World War II he joined his father who had an orchard Gosford, New South Wales. After studying Social Studies at Sydney University (1949–50), he married (1953), and started a farm at Kariong, New South Wales. [1]

He wrote short stories for children about "Bottersnikes and Gumbles", which contain a mixture of absurdity, humour, puns, as well as carrying an environmental message. [1]

Works

Wakefield wrote four books about the Bottersnikes and Gumbles:

Other

In 1996 the four books were reissued in an omnibus volume under the title The Complete Tales of Bottersnikes and Gumbles. [2]

Related Research Articles

<i>The Bulletin</i> (Australian periodical) Australian weekly magazine

The Bulletin was an Australian magazine first published in Sydney on 31 January 1880. The publication's focus was politics and business, with some literary content, and editions were often accompanied by cartoons and other illustrations. The views promoted by the magazine varied across different editors and owners, with the publication consequently considered either on the left or right of the political spectrum at various stages in its history. The Bulletin was highly influential in Australian culture and politics until after the First World War, and was then noted for its nationalist, pro-labour, and pro-republican writing. It was revived as a modern news magazine in the 1960s as The Bulletin with Newsweek, and was Australia's longest running magazine publication until the final issue was published in January 2008.

David Unaipon

David Ngunaitponi, known as David Unaipon, was an Aboriginal Australian man of the Ngarrindjeri people, a preacher, inventor and author. Unaipon's contribution to Australian society helped to break many Aboriginal Australian stereotypes, and he is featured on the Australian $50 note in commemoration of his work. He was the son of preacher and writer James Unaipon.

Thea Astley

Thea Beatrice May Astley was an Australian novelist and short story writer. She was a prolific writer who was published for over 40 years from 1958. At the time of her death, she had won more Miles Franklin Awards, Australia's major literary award, than any other writer. As well as being a writer, she taught at all levels of education – primary, secondary and tertiary.

Donald Horne

Donald Richmond Horne was an Australian journalist, writer, social critic, and academic who became one of Australia's best known public intellectuals, from the 1960s until his death.

Angus & Robertson (A&R) is a major Australian bookseller, publisher and printer. As book publishers, A&R has contributed substantially to the promotion and development of Australian literature. This well known Australian brand currently exists as an online shop owned by online bookseller Booktopia. The Angus & Robertson imprint is still seen in books published by HarperCollins, a News Corporation company.

Shaun Tan Australian artist, writer and film maker (born 1974)

Shaun Tan is an Australian artist, writer and film maker. He won an Academy Award for The Lost Thing, a 2011 animated film adaptation of a 2000 picture book he wrote and illustrated. Other books he has written and illustrated include The Red Tree and The Arrival.

Sue Woolfe is an Australian author, teacher, scriptwriter, editor and documentary film-maker.

Bottersnikes and Gumbles are fictitious creatures in a series of children's books by Australian writer S. A. Wakefield and illustrator Desmond Digby. Four books were published between 1967 and 1989. The series is considered a classic of Australian children's literature and has sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide. A television adaptation of the same name has aired on Netflix and terrestrial television in 2015 and 2016.

Allan Baillie is an Australian writer. He was born in Scotland, but moved with his family to Australia when he was seven. His first job was working as a Cadet Journalist then he began to work as a journalist working on papers such as the Melbourne Sun, The Telegraph and The Australian Women's Weekly having studied journalism at Melbourne University. Turning to literature his books include Adrift, Little Brother and The China Coin. He lives in Sydney, Australia with his wife and two children.

Ned Manning is an Australian playwright, actor and teacher, whose film credits include the lead role in Dead End Drive-In (1986) and an appearance in the teen film Looking for Alibrandi (2000). Manning's television credits include Bodyline, The Shiralee, "Prisoner"", and Brides of Christ. His first major play was Us or Them, and its production by Griffin Theatre Company marked the company's transition to being staffed by professional actors. Other plays have included Milo, Kenny's Coming Home and Close to the Bone; in 2007 Manning played the lead in his own play Last One Standing at the Old Fitzroy theatre in Sydney. The plays have received mixed reviews, with Last One Standing in particular being criticised for its formulaic and predictable narrative. Manning has written for the Bell Shakespeare Company's Actors at Work program, a travelling community and schools theatrical education initiative.

John William "Jack" Bedson is an Australian writer, poet, children's picture book author, and former university librarian.

Robin Morrow AM is an Australian lecturer, critic and editor in children's literature. She is a past president of the Australian section of the International Board on Books for Young People IBBY Australia.

AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource, usually referred to simply as AustLit, is an internet-based, non-profit collaboration between researchers and librarians from Australian universities, led by the University of Queensland (UQ), designed to comprehensively record the history of Australian literary and story-making cultures. AustLit is an encyclopaedia of Australian writers and writing.

Horwitz Publications is an Australian publisher primarily known for its publication of popular and pulp fiction. Established in 1920 in Sydney, Australia by Israel and Ruth Horwitz, the company was a family-owned and -run business until the early 21st century. The company is most associated with their son Stanley Horwitz, who took over publishing operations in 1956. Stanley was eventually succeeded by his son Peter and daughter Susan, who was the company's director in the years 1987-2016.

Desmond Ward Digby was a New Zealand-born Australian stage designer, painter and illustrator of children's books.

Bottersnikes and Gumbles is a British-Australian-American animated television series which first aired on 7TWO in Australia and CBBC in the United Kingdom. The cast includes Jason Callender, Richard Grieve, Jeff Rawle, Kathryn Drysdale and Miriam Margolyes. It was released on Netflix in North America on 19 August 2016 but was re-dubbed with American accents.

Eliza Hamilton Dunlop was an Irish–Australian poet and songwriter, known for composing the poem "The Aboriginal Mother" among others. She was born in County Armagh, Ireland, and was raised by her grandmother and a guardian after her father travelled to India and her mother died. Later she travelled to India to visit her father and discovered that she had two Indian half-sisters. Her writing career began in Ireland while she was still a child. After moving to Australia, her works were published in newspapers there, some set to music by Isaac Nathan after he arrived in Australia in 1841.

Peter Draffin

Peter Francey Draffin was an Australian author prolific in the 1960s and 1970s.

Barbara Ker Wilson English-born Australian novelist and editor

Barbara Ker Wilson was an English-born Australian novelist. She is credited as the person who "discovered" Paddington Bear. She wrote over twenty books and collated collections of stories. She gained awards for helping other writers.

Mena Kasmiri Abdullah is an Australian writer and poet who has been widely published in The Bulletin, Quadrant, Coast to Coast and other Australian anthologies. She is best known for her stories about Indian migrant families and the difficulties of adjusting to a new culture.

References

  1. 1 2 AustLit.
  2. Wakefield, S.A. (1996). The Complete Tales of Bottersnikes and Gumbles. Angus & Robertson Childrens. ISBN   978-0207190575.

Sources