Susan Green

I was born and grew up in Chelsea, a bayside suburb of Melbourne. My mother was a teacher and my father was an artist. When I was seven we went to live for three years in Castlemaine in central Victoria. After finishing high school in 1975, I went to art school but I didn’t finish my course; instead for two years I worked with intellectually handicapped adults. I then did primary teacher training and taught in a country school for three years. In 1986 I moved back to Castlemaine. Since then, I’ve worked at a radio station, as a youth worker, at the local Education Centre, for the Wilderness Society, as a cook in a childcare centre and in two different bookshops. I’ve also taught creative writing in various community settings. I travelled to the UK and Holland briefly in 1986; in 1991 I spent five months in Canada before going (again briefly) to the UK and France. My hobbies include print-making, drawing, gardening, sewing and knitting. And of course reading. I’m very interested in Victorian and post-1945 British history. I’ve had nine books for children and young adults published, plus some short stories. In 2008 I was awarded a Varuna Fellowship to work on ‘The Truth About Verity Sparks’. I live in an old house in Castlemaine with my husband, teenage son a Miniature Schnauzer called Gus and a python called Ursula.