Christobel Mattingley

Christobel Mattingley has published fifty-one books. Some have won awards, been shortlisted, translated or made into films by the ABC. Mattingley writes for all ages, from picture books to biography and history. No Gun for Asmir (1993), the first in her trilogy about a Bosnian refugee family, has been reprinted 20 times. Her groundbreaking South Australian Aboriginal history, Survival in Our Own Land (1988), now in its 6th edition, has become the standard reference. She worked again with Aboriginal people to help them tell Maralinga: the Anangu Story (2009), an Honour Book in the 2010 CBC Awards. Her latest children's book, My Father's Islands, sees Tasman's voyages through the eyes of his daughter.

Latest Book:My Father's Islands: Abel Tasman's Heroic Voyages
National Library of Australia, Canberra, 2012
It is the 1640s and Claesgen lives in Batavia with her stepmother, Jannetje, waiting for her father, Abel Tasman, to come back from his sea voyages. When he returns, Tasman delights his young daughter with tales of treacherous oceans and relentless wild weather, hazards of unseen coral reefs and endless days of empty ocean, encounters — both friendly and hostile — with indigenous peoples, murder and theft, and the threat of smugglers and pirates.

Inspired by a 1637 painting of the Tasman family by Jacob Cuyp and meticulously researched, My Father's Islands is a fictional story told through the voice of Claesgen. Tasman's daughter's curiosity about her father's life takes the reader on his voyage on the unchartered seas of the Pacific Ocean, in the search for unknown lands and new sources of riches for the powerful trading company, the Dutch East India Company. 

Other Books:
For the Love of Nature: E. E. Gostelow's Birds and Flowers
National Library of Australia, 2010

A Brilliant Touch: Adam Forster's Wildflower Paintings
Canberra, National Library of Australia, 2011

Prizes and Awards

• 2010 Alice Award
• Honorary Doctorate of the University of South Australia 1995
• Member of the Order of Australia 1996

Genre:

• adventure
• (auto)biography
• essays/articles
• fantasy
• film/tv
• historical fiction
• literary fiction
• middle childhood
• multicultural
• nonfiction
• picture books
• poetry
• young adult fiction

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Contact phone: 08 8364 3571

Available for:

• speaking engagements