SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: The Lorikeet Tree
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Warrnambool
STATE:
COUNTRY: Australia
NATIONALITY: Australian
LAST VOLUME: SATA 350
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born April 30, 1943, in Middlesex, England; immigrated to Australia, 1949; third marriage to Mary-Anne Fahey (a writer and actor); children: Tracy, Linda, Andrew, Sally, Bronson, Gemma.
EDUCATION:Frankston Teachers College, B.Ed.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Teacher, 1963-68; Ministry of Education, Australia, speech pathologist, 1972-75; Burwood State College, lecturer in special education, 1976-78; Warambool Institute of Adult Education, senior lecturer in language and literature, 1979-88; full-time writer, 1989—.
AVOCATIONS:Racing historic cars, parties, Irish music, reading, walking.
AWARDS:Young Australian Best Book Award, 1987, for Unreal! Eight Surprising Stories, 1988, for Unbelievable! More Surprising Stories, 1989, for The Cabbage Patch Fib and Uncanny! Even More Surprising Stories, 1990, for The Paw Thing, 1991, for Round the Twist, 1992, for Quirky Tails! More Oddball Stories and Unmentionable! More Amazing Stories, 1993, for Unbearable! More Bizarre Stories, 1994, for Spooner or Later and Undone! More Mad Endings, 1995, for Duck for Cover and The Gizmo, 1996, for The Gizmo Again, 1998, for Wicked!, and 2002, for Tongue-tied!; Australian Writers’ Guild Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Children, 1990, and Prix Jeunesse Award, 1994, both for Round the Twist (television series); Gold Puffin Award, 1992, for selling one million books in Australia; Angus & Robertson Bookworld Award, 1993; Ashton Scholastic award (with Ted Greenwood and Terry Denton), 1993, for Spooner or Later; Victorian of the Year, Western Region, Australia Day (Victoria) Committee; Environment Award for Children’s Literature, Wilderness Society, for The Fisherman and the Theefyspray; named member, General Division of the Order of Australia, 1995, for body of work; Dymocks Children’s Choice Awards, 1998, for Sink the Gizmo and Wicked!, and voted Favourite Australian Author; Queensland Premier’s Literary Award for best children’s book, 1999, for Unseen!; Dromkeen Medal, 2001, for significant contributions to children’s literature; Monash University fellowship, 2010; Sakura Medal, 2011, for The Nest; Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards shortlist, 2017, for A Different Dog; Carnegie Medal nomination, 2019, for A Different Boy; Lifetime Achievement Award, Children’s Book Council of Australia, 2019; numerous Australian child-selected awards, including Canberra’s Own Outstanding List (COOL) award, West Australian Young Readers’ Book Award, Kids Own Australian Literature (KOALA) award, Kids Reading Oz Choice (KROC) award, as well as Australian Publishers Association Book Industry award, Christian Schools’ Book Award, Books I Like Best Yearly (BILBY) award, Australian Writers Guild award, and South Australian CROW award.
WRITINGS
Contributor to anthologies, including Stories for Seven Year Olds, edited by Linsay Knight, Random House Australia (North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia), 2012. Jennings’s books have been translated into Danish, Slovakian, German, French, Spanish, and Japanese.
Author’s short stories were adapted for the television series Round the Twist in 1989 and 1991, and the television series Driven Crazy in 1998.
SIDELIGHTS
In a career spanning four decades, Paul Jennings has written dozens of works for children, selling more than ten million copies worldwide and earning a slew of awards. A former teacher and speech pathologist, Jennings “is a legend of Australian children’s literature,” according to Sapling correspondent Kyle Mewburn. “He burst onto the literary scene in 1985 with his first anthology of short stories featuring weird, spooky and humorous tales with a twist, and never looked back.”
In addition to possessing a vivid imagination and a mildly disgusting sense of humor, Australian author Paul Jennings can credit his son’s absolute dislike for reading as the ingredient that fueled his own career as a popular children’s author. If it were not for the fact that the boy turned up his nose at most of the books put on his literary plate, Jennings might never have decided to take pen in hand and begin concocting such appetizing tales as “Cow Dung Custard” and “Clear as Mud.”
“The strength of Jennings’s writing lies in original precepts and unexpected plot twists,” noted a reviewer in Publishers Weekly. That may be true from a scholarly point of view, but as far as the most reluctant of readers are concerned, Jennings’s appeal comes from his insistence upon digging around in places where parents and teachers always shout “hands-off,” and constantly playing in the muck and mire of life.
Jennings introduces readers to his imaginative fiction with several collections of short stories, among them Unreal! Eight Surprising Stories, Quirky Tails! More Oddball Stories, Unbelievable! More Surprising Stories, and Uncanny! Even More Surprising Stories. Each of his tales concludes where the reader least expects it; surprise endings are concocted from a plotline that twists and turns like a cyclone. In “On the Bottom,” a dying man cannot find peace even on his deathbed when his tattoos come to life and decide to find a new place to hang out. Brian’s dog is determined to keep bringing home human bones that will not sit still in “Without a Shirt,” while David ends up with super powers—and super problems—of his own in “Wonderpants.” It is clear to young readers of Unreal!, Unbelievable!, and Uncanny! that, whether they are looking for haunted outhouses, a photocopy machine with an attitude, or piles of pig-poo, they will be sure to find it lurking somewhere in Jennings’s unbelievable tales.
The subject matter of the stories in the fourth Un— book, Unmentionable! More Amazing Stories, came as no surprise to fans of Jennings’s unbridled humor. Within the pages of Unmentionable! can be found “The Velvet Throne,” which tells of the horrors of not only being locked in a public toilet, but having the graffiti scrawled upon the walls actually come true; and “Little Squirt,” where a little boy triumphs over his brother in a contest that plays out in the school boys’ room. In seven other stories, Jennings mines the same vein, not only mentioning the unmentionable but making it funny as well.
Unbearable! More Bizarre Stories and Undone! More Mad Endings, following on the heels of Unmentionable!, step more forcefully into the fantastic: In “Clear as Mud” the tables turn on a school bully after a bite he receives from a strange bug causes his skin to become as clear as cellophane. In “Noseweed,” when Anthony only pretends to swallow the nasty cod liver oil-and-granola concoction his mother gives him, his cleverness backfires and the cereal starts sprouting. And in “What a Woman” a talented school athlete who also happens to be a girl gets her revenge against a group of taunting boys when she brings her aunt’s toe in for show and tell.
Despite the bizarre elements, Jennings’s tales “end with neat twists or telling questions that are more thoughtful than ‘mad,’” according to reviewer John Peters in School Library Journal. Many of Jennings’s short story collections have been combined into Uncollected, and he provides readers with an insight into his wildly off-kilter world with The Paul Jennings Superdiary and its sequel The Paul Jennings Superdiary 2002. Patricia Mahoney Brown, reviewing a Jennings collection in School Library Journal, felt that the stories featured in Quirky Tales! are “imaginative, unusual, bizarre, and humorous,” and that readers “become immersed directly into the plot.” In a review of Thirteen! Unpredictable Tales, also in School Library Journal, Brian E. Wilson commented that the assembled stories “show what a gifted storyteller Jennings is.”
Along with stories of the gross and strange, Jennings has collaborated on two serials with fellow Aussie author Morris Gleitzman, dishing up icky tales about deadly slobber worms that can suck out people’s insides in The Slobberers, the first book of the “Wicked” series. Before the story is over, the heroes of the tale have encountered killer frogs, white-haired spies, and way-too-near-death experiences. The pair collaborated on a second serial, collected in the volume Deadly!, which starts with Amy being kidnapped in a military vehicle by a bunch of bratty little kids and Sprocket, an amnesiac, alone in the bush, naked, and without food. Are the commandos really children, or is something sinister happening? Amy and Sprocket have to team together to find out.
Other books for pre-teen readers include the award-winning The Cabbage Patch Fib, The Paw Thing, and The Gizmo. The Cabbage Patch Fib tells the story of Chris who, wondering where babies come from, manages to find a small green baby in a cabbage patch. The baby will only behave if Chris is there to take care of it. The Paw Thing is the first in a series of books about Singenpoo, a cat who can read. When the world is threatened by a plague of mice, led by a rat named Mac, it seems only Singenpoo can defeat them. In The Gizmo, Stephen steals a device called the gizmo, only to realize that once he has taken it, he will not be able to get rid of the thing. Most unfortunately, the gizmo seems to have the ability to switch Stephen’s clothing with that of any passing person. The gizmo continues to cause trouble over a course of four books, and all of the stories are collected in The Fantastic and Amazing Gizmo: All Four Stories in One.
Written for slightly older readers, the story of Hedly Hopkins has a somewhat autobiographical feel: like Jennings himself, Hedly and his family move from England to Australia in 1956. Lonely and desperate to fit in, Hedly accepts a dare from a local gang to remove a skull from an opened grave and deliver it to the gang’s leader. Contrary to its long title, How Hedley Hopkins Did a Dare, Robbed a Grave, Made a New Friend Who Might Not Have Really Been There at All, and While He Was at It Committed a Terrible Sin Which Everyone Was Doing Even Though He Didn’t Know It features extremely short chapters with short sentences, and sustains a very quick pace while dealing with some serious issues and keeping Jennings’s typical sense of humor. A contributor in the Age stated that the book “is a page-turner, full of spine-tingling moments and comic embarrassments. Behind the thrills and laughs, however, is a poignant sense of an isolated and powerless boy.”
Jennings also explores serious issues in works such as The Unforgettable What’s His Name, A Different Dog, and A Different Boy. In The Unforgettable What’s His Name, a withdrawn, apprehensive boy develops the chameleon-like ability to blend into his surroundings. Writing in School Library Journal, Kate Olson stated that the “illustrated adventure story packages a message about social anxiety in a very unique early middle grade format.”
A Different Dog focuses on the relationship between a lonely youth and a traumatized canine. While training for a race that courses up a mountain, an oft-bullied boy with selective mutism comes across an automobile accident. Although the driver is dead, a dog has survived the crash, and the boy rescues the frightened animal. The bond they form as they make their perilous way down the slope helps the youngster to find his voice. “There is suspense from start to finish, surprising twists and turns, and nail-biting situations,” observed Reading Time contributor Jennifer Mors.
A Different Boy introduces Anton, a youngster housed at Wolfdog Hall, a brutal orphanage. After fleeing the institution, Anton stows away aboard an ocean liner bound for the New Land. He befriends Max, a boy with learning disabilities, and Max’s mother, who harbors a secret from her past. When trouble arises during the journey, the trio learn to rely upon each other for support. A Different Boy “is serious and thoughtful, with themes of loss, identity, memory, migration, bravery and resilience,” explained School Librarian contributor Sue Roe, who added that the work “has resonance for today’s world of displacement, migration and refugees.”
The Nest, Jennings’s first book for young-adult audiences, took four years to write. The novel centers on Robin, a troubled sixteen year old who begins losing his grip on sanity as he experiences first love and raises questions about his mother’s disappearance from the family years earlier. Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, Michael Lallo called The Nest “a dark, gripping tale,” adding that the author’s goal “is to acknowledge the confusion, anger and sexual frustration of adolescence. There is no happy ending—at least not in the traditional sense.”
Along with novels and picture books, Jennings has also designed a game book, with authors Ted Greenwood and Terry Denton, called Spooner or Later, which is brimming with silly illustrations and their accompanying “spoonerisms,” a form of wordplay where the beginning sound of a pair of words is reversed, making “read the book” into the nonsensical “bead the rook.” Jennings has collaborated with Greenwood and Denton on other game books filled with riddles, tongue-twisters, and jokes. Also the author of award-winning picture books, he introduces a dragon called Rascal and his young friend Ben in a series that begins with Rascal the Dragon. The story is a “delight to share with young people,” according to a reviewer in Children’s Bookwatch, while Teresa Wittmann noted in School Library Journal that “Beginning readers will enjoy this simple story about a boy who loves dragons.”
[OPEN NEW]
After writing his memoir, Untwisted: The Story of My Life, Jennings’s next novel was The Lorikeet Tree. It is about a brother and sister living on a farm in Victoria, Australia. The two are struggling to restore the area’s natural habitat, and fifteen-year-old sister Emily is especially fond of the animals that live on their property, particularly the lorikeet birds. When the siblings’ father is diagnosed with a terminal illness, however, Emily and brother Alex react very differently. Alex becomes obsessed with his treehouse and refuses to accept the facts about his dad’s condition. Emily struggles to relate to Alex even as she has to care for her father. The book is structured around four writing assignments Emily has for school, and it also includes her falling in love for the first time. Peter Hollindale, writing in School Librarian, praised the book as “remarkable and moving.” Hollindale described the story as a “family and ecological drama of considerable power.”
[CLOSE NEW]
Although Jennings’s stories might raise eyebrows among parents, critics have praised his efforts for getting kids to sit down and read in the first place. “Here’s a man whose definition of a reluctant reader is ‘a child for whom adults have not been able to find a good enough book,’” according to Karen Jameyson in Horn Book. Jameyson praised Jennings for his ability to craft “quirky, incredibly accessible, funny tales with unexpected twists and turns” that provide enough interest in reading to motivate a host of children who have difficulty mastering this important skill.
Jennings’s efforts to encourage reluctant readers have been rewarded with several child-selected best book awards in his native country. He is particularly proud of such honors, once telling SATA: “Some adults think I should write about the sorts of things that they think kids should read. I only want to write the sorts of things that I think kids want to read. Books are fantastic. That’s what I want my readers to think.”
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Dwyer, Judy, A Wizard Lit Master to Paul Jennings, Wizard Books (Ballarat, Victoria, Australia), 2000.
Ricketson, Matthew, Paul Jennings: The Boy in the Story Is Always Me, 2000.
PERIODICALS
Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia), May 28, 2005, “How Paul Did a Dare” (author profile); December 15, 2018, Frances Atkinson, review of A Different Boy.
Booklist, June 1, 1997, Jeanette Larson, review of Unreal!, p. 1733.
Children’s Bookwatch, February, 2005, review of Rascal the Dragon.
Horn Book, July-August, 1992, Karen Jameyson, “News from Down Under,” pp. 497-500.
Magpies, November, 1997, review of Wicked!, p. 6, and Sink the Gizmo, p. 7; July, 1998, review of Singenpoo Strikes Again, p. 34; November, 1998, review of Unseen!, p. 6; May, 2002, review of Tongue-tied!, p. 214; March, 2003, review of The Cabbage Patch Pong, p. 33; July, 2003, review of The Reading Bug, and How You Can Help Your Child to Catch It, p. 6.
Publishers Weekly, October 11, 1991, review of Unreal! Eight Surprising Stories and Uncanny! Even More Surprising Stories, p. 63.
School Librarian, summer, 2001, review of Sucked In, p. 89, and review of Unseen! p. 102; winter, 2002, review of Tongue-tied!, p. 214; fall, 2004, Prue Goodwin, “The Reading Bug,” p. 167; summer, 2018, Elain Burchell, review of A Different Dog, p. 102; winter, 2018, Sue Roe, review of A Different Boy, p. 34; autumn, 2023, Peter Hollindale, review of The Lorikeet Tree, p. 64.
School Library Journal, January, 1995, John Peters, review of Undone! More Mad Endings, p. 108; August, 1998, review of Unreal! Eight Surprising Stories, p. 31; June, 2000, Patricia Mahoney Brown, review of Quirky Tails!, p. 85; February, 2002, Brian E. Wilson, review of Thirteen! Unpredictable Tales, p. 74; March, 2004, Teresa Bateman, review of Tongue-tied!, p. 88; January, 2005, Teresa Wittmann, review of Rascal the Dragon, p. 77; February, 2018, Kate Olson, review of The Unforgettable What’s His Name, p. 70.
ONLINE
ABC News, https://www.abc.net.au (October 7, 2020), Patrick Wood, “Paul Jennings Is One of Australia’s Most Beloved Children’s Authors. His Own Father Couldn’t See It”; April 8, 2023, Chris Calcino, “Children’s Author Paul Jennings Reflects on Childhood, Success and His Writing Process.”
Daily Mail, https://www.dailymail.co.uk (October 7, 2020), Zoe Zaczek, “Beloved Round The Twist Author Paul Jennings Reveals Why He’s Haunted by the Thought of Picking Up a Hammer – and the One Book He Regrets Writing.”
Dumbo Feather, https://www.dumbofeather.com/ (October 1, 2011), Josephine Rowe, “Paul Jennings Is Unreal” (author interview).
Guardian (London, England), https://www.theguardian.com/ (October 25, 2016), Philippa Chandler, author profile.
Paul Jennings website, http://www.pauljennings.com.au (August 1, 2019).
Reading Time, http://readingtime.com.au/ (May 29, 2017), Jennifer Mors, review of A Different Dog; (November 10, 2018), Barbara Swartz, review of A Different Boy.
Sapling, https://www.thesapling.co.nz/ (September 26, 2018), Kyle Mewburn, “Interviewing the legendary Paul Jennings.”
Sydney Morning Herald, https://www.smh.com.au/ (April 4, 2009), Paul Lallo, author profile; (October 9, 2018), Kerrie O’Brien, “The Three Words That Kick-started Paul Jennings’s Illustrious Career.”*
Paul Jennings
Australia (b.1943)
Paul Jennings migrated to Australia when he was 6.He was awarded the Coolest Book of the Decade Award for 'The Paw Thing', and was the first writer to sell a million books in Australia.
Genres: Children's Fiction
Series
Cabbage Patch
The Cabbage Patch Fib (1989)
The Cabbage Patch War (1996)
The Cabbage Patch Pong (2003)
The Cabbage Patch Curse (2004)
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Singenpoo
1. The Paw Thing (1989)
2. Singenpoo Strikes Again (1998)
3. Singenpoo Shoots Through (2000)
4. Singenpoo's Secret Weapon (2001)
Singenpoo Collection (2015)
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Gizmo
1. The Gizmo (1995)
2. The Gizmo Again (1995)
3. Come Back Gizmo (1997)
4. Sink the Gizmo! (1998)
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Wicked! (with Morris Gleitzman)
1. The Slobberers (1997)
2. Battering Rams (1997)
3. Croaked (1997)
4. Dead Ringer (1997)
5. The Creeper (1997)
6. Till Death Us Do Part (1997)
Totally Wicked! (1997)
Wicked! Collection (2013)
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Deadly! (with Morris Gleitzman)
1. Nude (2000)
2. Brats (2000)
3. Stiff (2000)
4. Hunt (2001)
5. Grope (2001)
6. Pluck (2001)
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Rascal Story
Rascal Takes Off (2004)
Rascal in Trouble (2004)
Rascal's Trick (2004)
Rascal the Dragon (2007)
Rascal and the Cheese (2008)
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Don't Look Now
1. Falling For it and The Kangapoo Keyring (2014)
2. A Magician Never Tells and Elephant Bones (2015)
3. Hair Cut and Just a Nibble (2015)
4. Hobby Farm and Seeing Red (2016)
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Novels
How Hedley Hopkins Did A Dare... (2005)
The Nest (2009)
The Unforgettable What's His Name (2016)
A Different Dog (2018)
A Different Boy (2018)
The Lorikeet Tree (2023)
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Collections
Diary Book (1980)
The Naked Ghost (1985)
Unreal! (1986)
Quirky Tails! (1987)
Uncanny! (1989)
Unbelievable! (1990)
Unbearable! (1991)
Unmentionable! (1991)
Undone! (1994)
Uncovered! (1995)
Unseen! (1998)
Tongue-tied! (2002)
Paul Jennings' Weirdest Stories (2006)
Paul Jennings' Funniest Stories (2007)
Paul Jennings' Spookiest Stories (2007)
Paul Jennings' Trickiest Stories (2008)
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Picture Books
Grandad's Gifts (1992)
Spooner Or Later (1993) (with Terry Denton and Ted Greenwood)
The Fisherman and the Theefyspray (1994)
Freeze a Crowd (1997)
Spit It Out! (2004)
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Novellas and Short Stories
The Bird Said Nothing (2012)
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Chapter Books
Round the Twist (1993)
Sucked In... (2001)
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Non fiction
Untwisted (2020)
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Omnibus editions
Uncollected 2 (1999)
Uncollected 3 (2000)
Wicked! (2009) (with Morris Gleitzman)
Paul Jennings (Australian author)
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the Australian writer. For other people named Paul Jennings, see Paul Jennings.
Paul Jennings
AM
Born 30 April 1943 (age 80)
Heston, Middlesex, UK
Occupation Novelist
Nationality Australian
Period 1985–present
Genre Twist ending
Children 6
Website
www.pauljennings.com.au
Paul Jennings AM (born 30 April 1943), is an English-born Australian writer for children, young adults and adults.[1] He is best known for his short stories that lead the reader through an unusual series of events and end with a twist. Many of his stories were adapted for the cult classic children's television series Round the Twist. Jennings collaborated with Morris Gleitzman on the book series Wicked!, which was adapted into an animated TV series in 2000, and Deadly!.
Early life and education
Paul Jennings was born on 30 April 1943 in Heston, Middlesex (now part of Hounslow in London). In 1949 his family emigrated to Australia.[2][3]
He first attended Bentleigh West Primary School in Bentleigh, a suburb of Melbourne, and then Caulfield Grammar School.[4]
He graduated with a Bachelor of Education Studies from Frankston Teachers College and taught at Frankston State School, Kangaroo Flat State School, the Turana Youth Training Centre and the Royal Children's Hospital State School in Mount Eliza. He then went to the Lincoln Institute of Health Sciences (now part of Monash).[2]
Career
After graduating, he worked as a speech pathologist then lecturer in special education at the Burwood State College and later, in 1979, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literature at Warrnambool Institute of Advanced Education[2] (both now part of Deakin University).[4]
In 1985, Jennings' first book of short stories, Unreal!, was published, during which he worked as a teacher, lecturer and speech therapist. In 1989, he decided to devote himself full-time to writing.[2] He began writing for children when his son, aged 11, was having trouble reading.[5]
Jennings' short stories were adapted for the first two seasons of children's television series Round the Twist in 1989 and 1992, and then later in 1998 for the only season of series Driven Crazy.[citation needed]
In 2020 Jennings' memoir, Untwisted: The Story of My Life, was published by Allen & Unwin.[6] Jennings started writing it ten years earlier, and it is his longest piece of writing.[7] In it, he examines many aspects of his life, including harbouring feelings of guilt about disliking his cold and emotionally abusive father, and having thoughts of attacking him.[8]
Personal life
Jennings first married aged 22. He has six children, and is a great-grandfather. His third wife is comedian Mary-Anne Fahey.[9] He has two step-children and two adopted children, who have helped to inform some of his stories about children looking for their biological parents.[3]
Awards and honours
In 1992, Jennings received a Gold Puffin Award, for selling one million books in Australia.
In 1993 he won an Angus & Robertson Bookworld Award, as Australian Author – Children's Literary Medal Criteria, "Best Selling Author" and "Most Valued Author".
In 1993 Jennings was made Victorian of the Year – Western Region, presented by the Australia Day (Victoria) Committee, for services to the Victorian community.
In 1995 he was appointed Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AM), in the Australia Day 1995 Honours List, for service to children's literature.[10]
In 1998 he was named Favourite Australian Author in Dymocks Children's Choice Awards.
In 2000 he was awarded the Dromkeen Medal, for significant contributions to the appreciation and development of children's literature.[11]
In 2010 he was made a Fellow of Monash University.[6]
In 2019 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Children's Book Council of Australia.[6][7]
Awards for titles
Young Australians' Best Book Award (YABBA):
1987 Unreal! – Winner, best book for older readers;
1988 Unbelievable! – Winner, best book for older readers;
1989 Uncanny! – Winner, best book for older readers;
1989 The Cabbage Patch Fib – Winner, best book for younger readers;
1990 The Paw Thing – Winner, best book for younger readers;
1991 Round The Twist – Winner, best book for older readers;
1992 Quirky Tails – Winner, fiction for younger readers;
1992 Unmentionable! – Winner, fiction for older readers;
1993 Unbearable! – Winner, fiction for older readers;
1994 Spooner Or Later – Winner, picture book section;
1994 Undone! – Winner, fiction for younger readers;
1995 Duck For Cover – Winner, picture book section;
1995 The Gizmo – Winner, fiction for younger readers;
1996 The Gizmo Again – Winner, fiction for younger readers;
1998 Wicked! – Winner, fiction for older readers;
2002 Tongue Tied – Winner, fiction for Younger Readers.
Canberra's Own Outstanding List (COOL Award):
1991 Round The Twist – Winner, Primary Section;
1992 The Cabbage Patch Fib – Winner, Primary Section;
1993 Unreal! – Winner, Primary Section;
1995 The Gizmo – Winner, Primary Section;
1997 The Paw Thing – Winner, Secondary Section;
1998 Wicked! – Winner, Primary Section;
2001 The Paw Thing – Winner, Coolest Book of the Decade.
West Australian Young Readers' Book Award (WAYRBA):
1989 Unreal! – Winner of Special Award, Highest Ranked Australian Author, Secondary Readers Section;
1991 The Paw Thing – Winner of Hoffman Award, Highest Ranked Australian Author and Primary Readers Section;
1992 Uncanny! – Winner of Hoffman Award, Highest Ranked Australian Author and Primary Readers Section;
1994 Unbearable! – Winner of Hoffman Award, Highest Ranked Australian Author and Primary Readers Section;
1995 Undone! – Winner of Hoffman Award, Highest Ranked Australian Author and Primary Readers Section.
Kids Own Australian Literature Award (KOALA):
1990 Unreal! – Winner Secondary Readers Section;
1992 Unmentionable! – Winner Infant/Primary Readers Section;
1993 Unbearable! – Winner Infant/Primary Readers Section;
1994 Undone! – Winner Infant/Primary Readers Section;
1995 Duck For Cover – Winner Infant/Primary Readers Section;
1996 Uncovered! – Winner Senior Book.
Kids Reading Oz Choice Award (KROC):
1990 Uncanny! – Winner Most Popular Oz Book;
1991 Unbelievable! – Winner Most Popular Oz Book;
1992 Unreal! – Winner Most Popular Oz Book;
1993 Undone! – Winner Most Popular Oz Book;
1994 Undone! – Winner Most Popular Oz Book;
1995 The Gizmo – Winner Most Popular Oz Book;
1996 Round the Twist – Winner Most Popular Oz Book;
1997 Wicked! – Winner Most Popular Oz Book;
1998 Wicked! – Winner Most Popular Oz Book;
1999 The Gizmo – Best Oz Children's Book;
2000 – No.s 1, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 10 in the Top Ten Books.
Books I Love Best Yearly (BILBY Award):
1992 Unreal! – Winner Read Alone Primary Section;
1994 Undone! – Winner Read Alone Primary Section;
1996 The Gizmo – Winner Read Australian Primary Section.
Australian Writers' Guild:
1990, AWGIE Award – Best Children's Adaptation (TV) Round The Twist;
1993, AWGIE Award – Best Children's Adaptation (TV) Round The Twist – Episode 5.
ABPA Joyce Nicholson Award:
1993, Spooner Or Later – winner, best designed children's book of the year.
Wilderness Society Environment Award for Children's Literature:
1994, Picture Book – The Fisherman and the Theefyspray.
Prix Jeunesse Award:
1994 – Winner Round The Twist (Television Series).
Australian Publishers Association – Book Industry Awards:
1997 – Peoples Choice Award for Children's Books for Come Back Gizmo.
Christian Schools' Book Award:
1998 – awarded to Paul Jennings and Jane Tanner for The Fisherman and the Theefyspray.
Dymocks Children's Choice Awards:
1998 – Favourite Australian Younger Reader Book, Sink The Gizmo;
1998 – Favourite Australian Older Reader Book, Wicked.
Queensland Premiers Literary Award:
1999 – Best Children's Book Unseen!.
Bibliography
This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (June 2022)
Short story collections
Unreal! Eight Surprising Stories (1985)
Unbelievable! More Surprising Stories (1986)
Quirky Tails! More Oddball Stories (1987)
Uncanny! Even More Surprising Stories (1988)
Unbearable! More Bizarre Stories (1990)
Unmentionable! More Amazing Stories (1991)
The Naked Ghost, Burp! and Blue Jam (1991)
Undone! More Mad Endings (1993)
Uncovered! Weird, Weird Stories (1995)
Unseen! (1998)
Tongue Tied! (2002)
Picture books
Rascal series
Rascal The Dragon
Rascal in Trouble
Rascal's Trick
Rascal Takes Off
Rascal at the Show
Rascal and the Cheese
Rascal And Little Flora
Rascal and the Hot Air Balloon
Rascal and the Monster
Rascal Goes Fishing
Rascal and the Dragon Droppings
Little Rascal to the Rescue
Rascal Plays Up
Rascal Runs Away
Rascal's Shadow
Rascal and the Bad Smell
Rascal Bumps His Head
Rascal's Big Day
Miscellaneous
Teacher Eater (1991)
Grandad's Gifts (1992)
The Fisherman and the Theefyspray (1994)
Chapter books
Cabbage Patch series
The Cabbage Patch Fib (1988)
The Cabbage Patch War (1996)
The Cabbage Patch Pong (2002)
The Cabbage Patch Curse (2004)
Gizmo series
The Gizmo (1994)
The Gizmo Again (1995)
Come Back Gizmo (1996)
Sink The Gizmo (1997)
Singenpoo series
The Paw Thing (1989)
Singenpoo Strikes Again (1998)
Singenpoo Shoots Through (1999)
Singenpoo's Secret Weapon (2001)
Miscellaneous
The Spitting Rat (1999)[12]
Sucked In (2000)
Maggot (2003)
The Lorikeet Tree (2023)
Novels
Deadly series (co-written with Morris Gleitzman)
Nude (2000)
Brats (2000)
Stiff (2000)
Hunt (2000)
Grope (2000)
Pluck (2000)
Wicked series (co-written with Morris Gleitzman)
The Slobberers (1997)
Battering Rams (1997)
Croaked (1997)
Dead Ringer (1997)
The Creeper (1997)
Till Death Do Us Apart (1997)
YA novels
How Hedley Hopkins Did a Dare (2005)[13]
The Nest (2009)[14]
Puzzle and joke books
Spooner or Later (1992)
Freeze A Crowd (1996)
Duck For Cover (1997)
Spit It Out (2003)
Compilations and bind-ups
Thirteen! Unpredictable Tales (1995)
Wicked: All six books in one (1998)
Uncollected: Every Story from Unreal!, Unbelievable!, and Quirky Tails (1998)
Uncollected: Volume Two: Every Story from Uncanny!, Unbearable!, and Unmentionable! (1999)
Uncollected: Volume Three: Every Story from Undone!, Uncovered!, and Unseen! (2000)
Deadly: All six books in one (2000)
The Fantastic And Amazing Gizmo (2002)
The Many Adventures of Singenpoo (2002)
The Cabbage Patch Fibs (2002)
Paul Jennings' Funniest Stories (2005)
Paul Jennings' Weirdest Stories (2006)
Paul Jennings' Spookiest Stories (2007)
Paul Jennings' Trickiest stories (2008)
Unreal! The Ultimate Collection: 30 Stories in 30 Years (2015)
Miscellaneous
Round the Twist (1989)
Round The Twist #1: Pink Bow Tie & Nails (a graphic novel) (1993)
The Paul Jennings Superdiary 1996
The Paul Jennings Superdiary 1997
The Paul Jennings Superdiary 2002
The Bird Said Nothing (eBook) (2012)
Adult non-fiction
The Reading Bug...and how you can help your child to catch it (2008)
Memoir
Untwisted : the story of my life. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin. 2020.
Critical studies and reviews of Jennings' work
Untwisted
Smith, Barnaby (January–February 2021). "Winning the lottery : Paul Jennings's unusual new memoir". Australian Book Review. 428: 36–37.
Television
Round The Twist (1989–2001)[15]
Driven Crazy (1998)[16]
Wicked! (2000-2001)[17]
Children's author Paul Jennings reflects on childhood, success and his writing process
ABC Far North / By Chris Calcino
Posted Sat 8 Apr 2023 at 4:44pmSaturday 8 Apr 2023 at 4:44pm
A man with grey hair smiles at the camera.
Paul Jennings turns 80 at the end of the month but is still writing and publishing books for young readers.(Supplied)
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A 13-word letter from a child was probably the most profound piece of writing ever to land in Paul Jennings' lap.
"All he said was: 'Dear Paul Jennings, how come you know what it's like to be me?'," the author says.
"Good grief, you know. That little boy could see himself in my story, which is exactly what I want."
Close to four decades and nine million book sales have transpired since Jennings began his career as a children's writer.
Author Paul Jennings as a young boy in boy scouts uniform.
Paul Jennings says he carried his father's unfair low expectations of him as a child into adulthood.(Supplied)
He turns 80 at the end of the month and is still writing, albeit more slowly than those days when children all over Australia clung to his every word.
"It's almost compulsive, in that I'm not really one to have a huge number of social things in my life, and the writing does fill a page," Jennings says.
"When a book comes out, I do get this sort of euphoria."
However, Jennings — who was born in London during the war, in 1943, and came to Australia on a five-week boat journey at the age of six — took decades to embark on his writing career.
Paul and Ruth Jennings at young children.
Jennings and his sister, Ruth, play dress-ups in the backyard after arriving in Australia.(Supplied)
Unlikely author
The author of Unreal!, The Gizmo and the Round the Twist TV series was not always destined for literary renown — or at least, it didn't seem that way.
His father refused to let him complete year 12 and attend university after learning that his friend had tried and failed.
"He had very low expectations of me," Jennings says.
"He said to me, 'He's smarter than you, so you won't pass'."
Jennings went to teacher's college, landed a job and finished his year 12 studies at night school.
When he later completed a university degree, he invited his father to the ceremony.
"All he said was, 'You didn't get honours'," he recalls.
Author Paul Jennings looks at the camera and smiles.
Jennings has sold almost nine million books since his first short story collection Unreal! was published in 1985.(Supplied)
He was 42 when his first book was published, but the seed was sown back when he was fresh out of teacher's college and overseeing a class of illiterate children.
Jennings recalls a visit from psychology and guidance officials, who were appalled to find an inexperienced teenager in charge of children with such profound intellectual challenges.
"When they left, one of them said to me: 'If you can find a book that these kids can read, and like to read … you'll at least be doing something'," he says.
"I could find books that kids with reading problems could read, but wanted to read was really hard."
Paul Jennings at the Unreal book launch in 1985.
Jennings is all smiles at the Unreal! book launch in 1985.(Supplied)
Rising to the challenge
It would take a couple of decades before he decided to write a book himself and it became a hit … eventually.
Jennings was brimming with pride as he brought his four kids along to watch him at a book-signing in Melbourne with Unreal! hot off the press.
Nobody showed up.
"The lady in the shop felt so sorry for me, she went home and got her own kids and brought them in," Jennings says.
Book covers the Paul Jennings books Gizmo, Singenpoo and Unreal.
Jennings' books have won a host of awards and hit bestseller lists.(Supplied)
After about a year, letters started arriving from children all over the country, and he realised that teachers were getting students to write to their favourite authors.
It wasn't long before Unreal! hit the best-seller list.
"It totally changed my life," Jennings says.
"Like everybody who gets hit with a bit of success or fame, I suppose it did go to my head a little bit.
"Before long, I was sort of flying around the world and it took a bit of getting used to, but it was very exciting."
A black and white newspaper article with a book cover featuring a bewildered looking punk
A 1987 review of Jennings' book Unbelievable!. (Supplied: National Library of Australia/Canberra Times)
The writing process
Jennings says the key ingredient to success as a writer is finding your own voice.
"I think of it as, there's all these rocks on the beach, and underneath them there's an idea … but there's thousands of rocks and you just keep turning them over," he says.
"I remember once I was looking for an idea for a story.
"I just suddenly came up with, 'What if there was a boy who was born with luminous teeth and, when he smiled, they glowed in the dark, a sort of green colour?'
"Straight away, I laughed."
Black and white photo of a man and a woman holding up certificates beside schoolkids
Authors Paul Jennings (right) and Robin Klein (left) with their Cool Awards for most-popular authors, as voted by Canberra schoolchildren in 1992.(Supplied: National Library of Australia/Canberra Times)
From there he had to inject feeling and meaning, and decided the boy had been left on a doorstep as an orphan and grew up being teased mercilessly about his fluorescent fangs.
"He wanted to find his biological mother," Jennings says.
"I have a lot of experience in my life — having adopted two children and [being] stepfather of two children — of that as an issue.
"I have a lot of feelings that I had when children were trying to find their birth parent, as both the parent and watching what the child was suffering."
The bright-toothed boy gets a note from his biological mother on his 11th birthday, saying she will be outside a doughnut shop in Swanson St, Melbourne, if he wants to meet her on that day.
Round The Twist cast in front of the lighthouse.
The cast of Jennings' hit TV show Round The Twist, who became a part of so many Australian children's afternoons.(Supplied)
He overcomes a slew of obstacles getting there, but finally arrives only to realise an underground railway station has been built on the site of the doughnut shop, and it is packed with commuters.
"He sees an electrician working on a switchboard and he rushes over and pulls down a lever, and all the lights go out," Jennings says.
"And there, glowing in the distance, is a little set of glowing teeth, and he knows that it must be his mother's.
"Through the darkness, two pairs of teeth come together in a little kiss."
An old newspaper article in black and white with a man's headshot set in the middle.
Jennings is quoted in a 1989 article saying he wants readers to "lick a flyswat" if it helps them become someone else for a moment.(Supplied: National Library of Australia/Canberra Times)
Jennings uses that peculiar tale to help aspiring writers understand his writing process.
"I've got some emotion in the story. I've written about something I know about … I've waited until I've got a good idea, and I've persevered because you're sweating, trying to make this thing work," he says.
"You're not just sitting there and it's wafting off your pen.
"I always think it's like doing a really, really difficult exam."
Children's author Paul Jennings smiles as he stands in front of bushland.
Jennings says writing books children want to read has been a great motivation.(Supplied)
'That's made my day'
It's the heartfelt messages from readers that keep Jennings going, even after all these years.
Harold and Matron Gribble in the kids television show, Round the Twist.
Mark Mitchell (left) and Christine Keogh play the odious Harold and Matron Gribble in Round the Twist.(Supplied: ACTF)
He remembers a letter he received from a young fan years ago after he wrote a story with a bed-wetting protagonist.
"My friend, she wet the bed all the time — and, after she read your story, she stopped wetting the bed," the letter read.
That may have been pure coincidence, but it encouraged Jennings all the same.
"A lot of people don't like it, if they've got a certain level of recognition, if people come up to them and want to tell them how much they liked their work," he says.
"But I always say, thanks for telling me that. That's made my day.
"If people like it and I get nice letters, that sort of endorsement, even at my age and stage of career, still is very meaningful."
Posted 8 Apr 2023
Paul Jennings is one of Australia's most beloved children's authors. His own father couldn't see it
ABC News Breakfast /
By Patrick Wood
Posted Wed 7 Oct 2020 at 3:14pmWednesday 7 Oct 2020 at 3:14pm
Author Paul Jennings looks at the camera and smiles.
Jennings' childhood was peppered with anxiety and sadness.(Supplied)
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Paul Jennings was 11 years old when he first thought about bashing his father over the head with a hammer.
The thought terrified him at the time. He wondered if he was insane.
He worried that if anyone found out about those intrusive, insistent thoughts he would be taken to an asylum.
Wait, what?
The man who wrote Singenpoo, Unreal, and Round The Twist? The beloved author of some of Australia's best-known children's stories?
The same.
YOUTUBERound The Twist became wildly popular after Jennings wrote the scripts based off his short stories.
The rejection letter
Memoirs are tricky things to write, Jennings confesses.
At 77, he has just released his own, titled Untwisted: The Story Of My Life.
"I think it's the most difficult book I've ever written," he said this week.
It charts his life and deals with facts, but he approached it more like a novel. That played to his strengths, he figured.
With that in mind, it expertly weaves in anecdotes from his early years through to now.
It tells of how he was born in England and moved to Australia with his parents and sister when he was six.
Paul and Ruth Jennings at young children.
Jennings has always been close to his sister, Ruth.(Supplied)
He grew up in suburban Melbourne and became a teacher then lecturer after leaving school at 17, having never completed year 12.
Jennings liked telling stories from a young age and even sent a short, written piece to the Australian Women's Weekly magazine when he was 13.
It was politely rejected, but his confidence was shattered, and he wouldn't submit another piece of writing until he was almost 40.
That was Unreal — the collection of eight short children's stories that became a near-instant success and launched a writing career that has led to 70 books and nearly 10 million copies sold.
So far so good, as far as memoirs go.
Yet Jennings doesn't shy from the painful and personal memories of his own childhood, particularly his relationship with his dad.
He lingers on the details that offer insight into the way his upbringing shaped his life and the stories for which he would come to be known.
'The pain was excruciating'
As far as Jennings can discern, his father Arthur never wanted kids.
This manifested itself in a few ways.
His sister was ignored and he became the target for snide or outright cruel comments and "lessons".
His dad made a lot of comments that cut deeply.
"You will never be fit for anything but the workshop."
"Shut up. It's your fault."
"You will never pass."
"That was to teach you about electricity."
The first two were said when Jennings was just six. The last one was uttered a bit later in the same garage that the hammer sat.
Author Paul Jennings as a young boy in boy scouts uniform.
Jennings doesn't think his father was ever proud of him.(Supplied)
Jennings was called over to the lawnmower and told to hold the end of the high-tension lead in one hand and touch the spark plug with the other.
His dad yanked on the starter cord and the engine turned over.
"A million little hammers pummelled my body from within. The pain was excruciating," Jennings recalls in the book.
He knew something was wrong with the relationship and thought it was his fault.
He knew he disliked his dad, but being only 11 it didn't occur to him that his dad disliked him back.
"All the other boys I knew adored their fathers. They even boasted about them," he said.
Over time, Jennings' dislike turned to disgust. That's when the hammer thoughts started.
"These inner images ruined my teenage years and beyond," he writes.
"This problem followed me into middle age.
"I couldn't pick up a hammer without this terrible intrusion exploding silently into my consciousness.
"I never recovered from these feelings of disgust. Right up until the day of his death I hated myself for having them."
His dad never lived to see his writing success. But Jennings is sure it wouldn't have made any difference.
"I think he would have said, 'It's only kids' stuff'. I don't think I think he was ever proud of me," he said.
Jennings would later tell a therapist about the hammer and be relieved when told it wasn't uncommon and that the therapist wasn't surprised.
The one theme that keeps cropping up
It's not like there wasn't some happiness in his youth.
Jennings found great solace in religion and the community around it, although later in life became agnostic.
There are stories in the memoir that hint at a rebellious side and a clear affection for his mother and sister.
So, asked whether he had a happy childhood, the question appears to stump Jennings.
"I'm just trying to think of the honest answer about that," he replies after a long pause.
"I do think it was filled with anxieties and worries. I think there were moments of fun. It was a mixed bag.
"There were a lot of sadnesses in it and a lot of anxieties and worries."
And then Jennings delivers the kicker:
"It's hard to know where your personality originates from, but I probably was very introspective and observant of people and their foibles."
Paul Jennings at the Unreal book launch in 1985.
Jennings became a household name after the success of Unreal in 1985.(Supplied)
Those observations have helped inspire his stories. And the themes of his own childhood have crept into his work, even against his own will at times.
Bullies often get their comeuppance, for example.
Grifters, narcissists and conmen also cop it.
Perhaps more tellingly, parenting crops up a lot.
"There's a theme which comes up all the time, which is the separation of the parent and the child," Jennings says.
"And it's an incredibly powerful thing, because the loss of a child is enormous to a parent. And the loss of a parent is enormous to a child.
"That theme, I realised after a couple of years, it was poking its nose up quite a bit. And I kept saying to myself, 'I'm never doing that theme again'."
He estimates there are about 20 stories where the parent-child theme is central.
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Towards the end of his short stories series, he decided to write a silly piece called Lennie Lighthouse, about a boy whose teeth shone.
"I thought that's a really funny idea. It's a great story," he said.
What came out was a tale of an orphan who was the only boy in the world with shining teeth.
He goes on a journey to find his mum and the story ends with the two meeting at a railway station and coming to a loving embrace.
"I thought it was a terrific story," Jennings recalls.
"Then I said, 'You've done it again!' it started off being about luminous teeth, and it's ended up being the separation of the mother and the child."
Which brings Jennings to the one story he regrets writing.
'I think it's too hard for children'
No Is Yes is a short story about a father with exceptional language skills who raises his daughter in isolation as part of an experiment.
He teaches her a mixed-up version of English, swapping around the words for common objects and names.
For example, he tells her that salt is called pepper, so when she asks for the salt she'll be given pepper.
He also teaches her no means yes.
As the story progresses, the daughter escapes and falls in love with a boy, but he struggles to understand her or why she can't talk properly.
It ends with her father's house being consumed by fire while he is trapped inside. When the firemen arrive, they ask if anyone is in the house.
"No," she replies.
Round The Twist cast in front of the lighthouse.
The Round The Twist TV show has become a cult hit among those who grew up with it.(Supplied)
This story was originally intended for young adults, not the smaller kids Jennings normally writes for.
But a change in the publishing schedule meant it found its way into a collection for children.
"There aren't many things that I wish I hadn't written, but probably one of them was No Is Yes," Jennings reflected this week.
"I don't like the notion that your parents might not love you. I think it's too hard for children.
"I think it's very, very scary. Because if they don't, what have you got?
"And I do think that children who do have parents that don't love them — and I had one who didn't — they invent a parent who does.
"And with my father, the guilt I felt was that I didn't like him … it became my problem, when it was his."
The king on the throne
Jennings continues to write.
His latest books, the Different series, are more serious novellas that sprinkle in the fun along the way.
He takes great pride in his work and is pleased that it has found a welcoming audience.
Yet for someone who is best known for humorous and quirky stories, he admits to finding the serious stuff easier.
Give him a day and he could write a story that will make you cry. A story that will make you laugh? That is a far harder task, he says.
For all this, he sits among the luminaries of Australian children's authors.
Book covers the Paul Jennings books Gizmo, Singenpoo and Unreal.
Jennings' books have won a host of awards and hit bestseller lists.(Supplied)
In Untwisted, he recounts the experience of meeting Roald Dahl after an event in the late 1980s, when Dahl was 72.
Authors were lined up in pairs to greet him as he sat on a lush chair at the end of the room.
"The king on the throne," is how Jennings describes him.
Now, decades later and millions of copies sold, is Jennings the king on the throne?
He laughs at the thought, then pauses again.
"I might have been the king on the throne at one stage … other people have come along now," he says.
"I'm living in this country town where I've been for the last 35 years and I'm just another person down here.
"I'm in a really comfortable place."
Peace, at last.
Posted 7 Oct 2020
Warrnambool: Author and Round the Twist creator Paul Jennings’ former retreat listed where he wrote many books
Alesha Capone
Alesha Capone, Property Journalist
First published 25 Sep 2023, 12:00pm
Herald Sun
236 Merri St, Warrnambool, was previously owned by best-selling Australian author Paul Jennings. Pictures: Supplied.
A Warrnambool house that Round the Twist creator and author Paul Jennings owned when he penned some of his most famous books is ready to start a new chapter.
The Victorian-era home at 236 Merri St featuring 3.96m-high ceilings, ornate cornices, ceiling roses, lead lighting, a veranda and open fireplaces with sandstone mantles is for sale with a $1.1m-$1.2m asking range.
Gleeson Real Estate director Jeremy Gleeson said Jennings had renovated the five-bedroom pad during his time there which spanned 1992-2001.
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Many of Jennings’ short story anthologies were adapted into the classic Australian children’s television series Round the Twist, which aired between 1990 and 2001.
He collaborated with fellow writer Morris Gleitzman on the series Wicked! which was made into an animated TV program.
In 1995, Jennings was appointed a member in the General Division of the Order of Australia for services to children’s literature.
The house maintains an old-world charm.
SA schoolgirl Karalee Angel-Smith (c) taking photograph of her sister Rhiannon Sngel-Smith (l) with Aust childrens author Paul Jennings (r) during appearance by him in the Book Place store in Rundle Mall 13 Apr 1999.
Schoolgirl Karalee snaps a photograph of her sister Rhiannon as they get a book signed by author Paul Jennings in 1999.
The kitchen and large light-filled living area connect to the veranda and garden.
Some of Jennings’ famous childrens’ books including Uncovered! Weird, Weird Stories,
The Cabbage Patch War, The Gizmo and the Singenpoo series, along with Round the Twist scripts, were written during his time at the home.
Mr Gleeson said the house’s current owners had leased the property out as short-stay rental accommodation.
“In recent years there have been upgrades to the kitchen and upstairs would have been added, the two bedrooms, work space and bathroom,” Mr Gleeson said.
“I like the upstairs area, it’s quite spacious and gives you options.”
The property is located close to the beach, Lake Pertobe and reserves.
Timber floors and a neutral colour palette.
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Paul Jennings with his book The Reading Bug: And How You Can Help Your Child to Catch It. Picture: Supplied.
Aside from potentially using the area for a home-based business, Mr Gleeson having a first-floor kitchenette meant the space could also serve as a teenage retreat or living quarters for older family members.
Upstairs offers “beautiful” uninterrupted ocean views, he added.
Located on a 663sq m block, the home has two living areas, two bathrooms, both an indoor and outdoor laundry and a dining room with French doors leading to outside.
A staircase leads to the upper level.
Blue walls and a fireplace in one of the bedrooms.
The property is close to Lake Pertobe, the Warrnambool foreshore, the local train station and sports fields.
Expression of Interest will close at 5pm on September 29.
Sun 11 Oct 2020 21.44 EDT
8
“Somebody once said, ‘Don’t go visiting the graves of the demons you’ve buried,’” Paul Jennings recalls with a small laugh. It sounds like the start of one of his short stories.
Normally when the beloved children’s author puts pen to paper, the result is something surreal or fantastical. This is the creator of Round the Twist, the author of Unreal, known for writing about things like remote controls that can fast forward or rewind time; bugs that can turn your skin transparent; a long-dead fox that comes slowly back to life after being fed lemons.
For his latest work, however, he has made the move from fiction to reality, with a bittersweet memoir that offers an unexpected new context to his stories, navigated with both humour and sadness.
Richard Moir, Ben Thomas, Joelene Crnogorac and Jeffrey Walker in Round the Twist (1992)
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“It was painful,” he says, of writing his thoughtful and unusual memoir, Untwisted – The Story of my Life. “Some of the things, members of my own family didn’t know about.” But now, at 77, the memoir “was just something I felt ready to do – and I’ve enjoyed it but also it’s been quite confronting”.
Perhaps better than anyone else, Jennings knows the power and impact words can have on children – first, from his own childhood, then through his years as a teacher, and finally as a writer.
Untwisted opens at an ending: it’s 1983, Jennings’ marriage has broken down, and he is now a single father of four living in a half-finished house, looking down the barrel of losing his job. Moving back and forth across his life, Jennings takes readers through highs, lows and unexpected turns, and doesn’t shy away from the weird or the personal – such as the moment when, so stressed by the precariousness of his finances and his crumbling marriage, he hid in a wardrobe. He also explores the intrusive, violent images he started getting at the age of 11, which made him question his own sanity.
Australian author Paul Jennings as a young boy.
View image in fullscreen
Australian author Paul Jennings as a young boy. Photograph: Supplied by Allen and Unwin
Throughout the book Jennings identifies the line between truth and fiction, and quietly shows readers the origins of his ideas. In writing something like this, “You can see all the connections in your life and the places you’ve made mistakes,” he says. “I feel that if you’re prepared to bare your soul a little bit, which some writers do, it is useful to other people.”
He recounts an important meeting with a publisher – his big break – where he drove hours in a hot car, and then, when he went to change into his formal clothes, realised he had forgotten to pack his trousers. Later, in the TV series Round the Twist that he adapted from his short stories, one of his characters finds himself saying “without my pants” at the end of every sentence. It’s a mirror between his life and his work that’s too strange to be a coincidence.
If you look back at his work, it turns out Jennings has actually been baring his soul through his fiction since the very beginning; the memoir is just lifting the final barrier. Jennings talks about one recurring theme in his writing being “the sorrowful woman”. He laughs. “The little boy’s always trying to make his mother happy – I did that quite a few times without realising that was what I was doing.”
In Untwisted we see, perhaps, where this preoccupation came from. Early on he lays out a memory from his childhood – told, he explains in the book, in third person because “maybe I’m protecting myself from feelings that are still raw”. In it, his mother is pulling him along on his Christmas present, a sled, and even at such a young age he feels guilty, like a burden. He can feel her sadness but at this stage doesn’t know the reason why. Later, he learns, it’s because of the then-recent suicide of her brother. “For the rest of his life he will feel the need to make her happy,” Jennings writes.
In his memoir he tracks significant words through his own life. At 12 he unsuccessfully submitted a story to Australian Women’s Weekly – the rejection stung, and he didn’t write again until he was almost 40. He also lists, verbatim, lines his father said to him as a child, seared into his memory:
“You will never be fit for anything but the workshop.”
“Shut up. It’s all your fault.”
“That was to teach you about electricity.”
Paul Jennings’ memoir Untwisted: the Story of My Life, out October 2020.
His father’s presence, which swings from indifference to cruelty, haunts the book. Jennings explains that writing it all out – and being able to look back over separate incidents – allowed him to gain new understanding. “I was surprised at the degree it brought things from the past to life with more clarity than I’d ever had before,” he says. Even though it was painful, he is glad he wrote it. “The book was a form of therapy, even though that wasn’t the main point.”
His fiction isn’t necessarily a way of him rewriting his own past to be more how he would have liked it, but a way of offering young readers a lifeline. “The children in my stories nearly always come out on top by some miraculous happening or by some craftiness, and I do think it makes them feel empowered … and maybe even a little bit of hope.”
With Untwisted, he says, “I wanted it to be a different sort of memoir.” He confesses early on to readers that he is in new territory – so he breaks the fourth wall regularly to check in and explain his choices. In between the stories and the self-examination it’s also, strangely, a really good guide to writing for children, offering advice to the next generation of children’s writers to help them understand why the right words, the right story and the right amount of empathy can be so important.
Untwisted: The Story of My Life by Paul Jennings is out now through Allen and Unwin
Beloved Round The Twist author Paul Jennings reveals why he's haunted by the thought of picking up a hammer – and the one book he regrets writing
Australian children's author Paul Jennings has lifted the lid on his childhood
Jennings released a memior, Untwisted: The Story of My Life, last month
The 77-year-old told said it was the 'most difficult' book he has ever written
By ZOE ZACZEK FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA
PUBLISHED: 21:54 EST, 7 October 2020 | UPDATED: 02:29 EST, 8 October 2020
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Australian children's author Paul Jennings has lifted the lid on his traumatic upbringing and revealed he thought about hitting his father over the head with a hammer from the age of 11.
The beloved writer, who penned Australian children's classics Unreal and Round The Twist, released a memoir about his life last month.
The 77-year-old told the ABC it was the 'most difficult' book he has ever written, with the author detailing painful childhood memories within its pages.
Jennings was born in England and moved to Australia at the age of six with his younger sister and parents.
Australian children's author Paul Jennings has lifted the lid on his childhood
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Australian children's author Paul Jennings has lifted the lid on his childhood
Jennings, , who penned Australian children's classics Unreal and Round The Twist, released a memoir about his life last month
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Jennings, , who penned Australian children's classics Unreal and Round The Twist, released a memoir about his life last month
From that age, Jennings was the victim of cruel verbal abuse by his father - who he is sure never wanted children.
Jennings' said his dad would tell him: 'You will never be fit for anything but the workshop' and 'Shut up. It's your fault'.
By 11, Jennings was haunted with images of assaulting his father with a hammer.
'These inner images ruined my teenage years and beyond,' he wrote in the memoir.
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'I couldn't pick up a hammer without this terrible intrusion exploding silently into my consciousness.'
Jennings said he hated himself for having the dark thoughts, which lingered up until his father's death.
The author published his first novel, Unreal, at 37 and went on to write 70 books.
Despite the acclaim, Jennings does not believe his father would have thought highly of the success and likely would have dismissed it as 'only kids' stuff'.
Jennings published his first novel, Unreal, at 37 and went on to write 70 books
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Jennings published his first novel, Unreal, at 37 and went on to write 70 books
The 77-year-old told said his memoir was the 'most difficult' book he has ever written
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The 77-year-old told said his memoir was the 'most difficult' book he has ever written
His father had died by the time Jennings was a noteworthy published author.
While Jennings had a strained relationship with his father, he still recalls having a 'good' childhood.
Pictured: Round The Twist, which went on to be a TV show
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Pictured: Round The Twist, which went on to be a TV show
'I can remember all the good parts, like the holidays and my mother's bread and butter pudding, very clearly,' Jennings' biography on his website reads.
'I can also remember all the fears and feelings of childhood that aren't so good.
'These are the things that I write about in my stories and which make some children ask ''How do you know what it's like to be me?''
'It's because I haven't forgotten those feelings — and nearly all children, even the bullies, have feelings like these.'
Jennings also revealed there was one novel he regretted writing, No Is Yes.
The book tells the story of a single father who puts his daughter into isolation and teaches her a jumbled version of English as part of a strange social experiment.
The story ends with the father dying in a house blaze because his daughter is unable to tell firefighters he is trapped inside.
Jennings said he doesn't like the idea that parent's may not love their children, adding it is 'too hard' and 'scary' for kids.
He said the book was meant for young adults but ended up being distributed to children by mistake.
Jennings' memoir, Untwisted: The Story of My Life, is out now.
Jennings, Paul
The Lorikeet Tree
Old Barn Books, 2023, pp240, [pounds sterling]7.99
9781910646878
Love. Death. Conservation
In Victoria, Australia, 15-year-old Emily lives with her widowed father and twin brother Alex on a 60-acre farm which they are rewilding, removing feral and non-native species to restore the natural habitat. Then her father falls ill with a terminal brain tumour. Emily's story takes the form of four writing assignments for her course at secondary school, covering the seasons of her father's final year. It is a time of domestic tumult, with not only the ordeal of caring for the dying man, but a stormy relationship with her very different brother, who is gifted but less stable than she is, and anxiety about the rewilding, to which she is deeply committed. This is a family and ecological drama of considerable power. Emily's first love, for a young wildlife officer, on top of her love for family and wild creatures, pushes her to the limit. A satisfying epilogue, one year later, shows how well she has survived. Her remarkable and moving story is strongly recommended.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 The School Library Association
http://www.sla.org.uk/school-librarian.php
Source Citation
Source Citation
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Hollindale, Peter. "Jennings, Paul The Lorikeet Tree." School Librarian, vol. 71, no. 3, autumn 2023, p. 64. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A766964544/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=2588e879. Accessed 19 Feb. 2024.