The play had many successful seasons in Australia and was then produced at the National Theatre in London in 1995 directed by Alan Ayckbourn, and also in South Africa, Canada, Japan and the USA.Īll his other books have been shortlisted for or have won numerous children's book prizes. One of his most successful books for young people is Two Weeks with the Queen, an international bestseller which was also adapted into a play by Mary Morris. Morris is well known to many people through his semi-autobiographical columns in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald magazine, Good Weekend, which he wrote for nine years.īut the majority of Morris' accolades are for his hugely popular children's books. He also wrote live stage material for people such as Rolf Harris, Pamela Stephenson and the Governor General of Australia. The Other Facts of Life won an AWGIE Award for the Best Original Children's Film Script.

Morris wrote a number of feature film and telemovie screenplays, including The Other Facts of Life and Second Childhood, both produced by The Australian Children's Television Foundation. Later he became sole writer for three award-winning and top-rating seasons with the TV comedy series The Norman Gunston Show. In between he managed to gain a degree in Professional Writing at the Canberra College of Advanced Education. He was born in England in 1953 and emigrated to Australia in 1969 so he could escape from school and become a Very Famous Writer.īefore realising that dream, he had a colourful career as paperboy, bottle-shop shelf-stacker, department store Santa Claus, frozen chicken defroster, fashion-design assistant and sugar-mill employee. His brilliantly comic style has endeared him to children and adults alike, and he is now one of Australia's most successful authors, both internationally and at home. Morris began his writing career as a screenwriter, and wrote his first children's novel in 1985.

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