Errol Broome

Errol Broome grew up in Perth, riding her bike under the peppermint trees of Cottesloe, and dodging big, brown jellyfish in the Swan River. She went to a school where the girls wore a pretty pale blue blazer that made every redhead want to go there. Errol did have a reddish tint to her hair!

Hopeless at arithmetic and not much good at sport, she set her sights from the start on winning the school's Parnell Prize for literature, a writing competition for final year students. When the time came, she was too interested in boys and the coming exams to put in an entry – something she always regretted. Years later, after her novel Dear Mr Sprouts won the WA Premier's Award for a Children's Book, she was asked to judge the Parnell Prize. ‘The entries were of a far higher standard than I could have achieved at that age.'

Errol went on to a BA at the University of WA, and a career in journalism. Working as a reporter on The West Australian, she learned to write clearly, to use the word big instead of large, and to stick to the facts. Yet she always thought one day she'd write a book. She'd make things up.

After marriage and moves to Melbourne, Papua New Guinea, Sydney and finally back to Melbourne, Errol turned to fiction writing. Her books have been published widely overseas and translated into several languages. Away with the Birds was a CBCA Honour Book in 2001. As well as winning the 1992 WA Premier's Award, she has been shortlisted for the award six times.

Errol admits to a fascination with the career and fate of the great horse Phar Lap. She featured him in several articles and stories, including her 1990 Mary Grant Bruce Award winning short story and her most recent book My Grandad Knew Phar Lap, which relates the true story of Phar Lap with a child of today as co-hero.

Errol's books are noted for the subtle way they explore the daily dramas of children's lives, stirring thoughts and questions of ethics that linger in readers' minds. A love of words shows in all her work.

• Dear Mr Sprouts (1991)
• Garry Keebles Kitchen (1992)
• Tangles (1993)
• Rockhopper (1994)
• Nightwatch (1995)
• Splashback (1996)
• What a Goat! (1997)
• Quicksilver (1997)
• Tough Luck (1998)
• Magnus Maybe (1998)
• Missing Mem (2000)
• Away with the Birds (2000)
• Cry of the Karri (2001)
• Gracie and the Emperor (2003)
• The Judas Donkey (2003)

Over the years, Errol has discovered her stories by actually writing and she focuses on the careful use of words.