A Giraffe in the Bath

Mem Fox

Mem Fox was born in Australia, grew up in Africa, studied drama in England, and returned to Adelaide, Australia in 1970, where she has lived with her husband, Malcolm, and daughter Chloe, happily ever after.

Mem Fox is Australia's most highly regarded picture-book author. Her first book, Possum Magic, is the best selling children's book ever in Australia, with sales of over three and a half million. And in the USA Time for Bed and Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge have each sold over a million copies. Time for Bed is on Oprah's list of the twenty best children's books of all time.

Mem has written over forty picture books for children and several non-fiction books for adults, including the best-selling Reading Magic, aimed at parents of very young children. Her book Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes beautifully illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, was on the New York Times bestseller lists for 16 weeks in 2008/2009. Her books have been translated into twenty-one languages, and many of them have been international best sellers.

Mem Fox was an Associate Professor in Literacy Studies at Flinders University in Adelaide (Australia), where she taught teachers for twenty four years until her early retirement in 1996. She has received many civic awards, honours and accolades in Australia, including two honorary doctorates. She has visited the United States over one hundred times, mostly in her role as a literacy expert although she is also a well-known author in America. She is an influential international consultant in literacy, but she pretends to sit around writing full time.