S. A. Wakefield S. A. Wakefield i(A41444 works by) (a.k.a. Sydney Alexander Wakefield; Sam Wakefield)
Born: Established: 13 May 1927 Sydney, New South Wales, ; Died: Ceased: 22 Aug 2009 New South Wales,
Gender: Male
Departed from Australia: 1930
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BiographyHistory

Sydney Wakefield, a farmer from New South Wales, is best known for his Bottersnikes and Gumbles series of children's books, all illustrated by Desmond Digby (q.v.).

Wakefield was born on the day his parents arrived in Australia as English immigrants. They lived for three years on an orchard near Griffith, New South Wales. Wakefield's mother died when he was six months old and his father returned to England and took up farming in Oxfordshire. Wakefield enlisted in the army in 1945, aged seventeen, and was commissioned into the 2nd Punjab regiment of the Indian Army.

After the war, Wakefield joined his father, who had returned to Australia and established an orchard near Gosford, New South Wales. He enrolled in a social studies course at Sydney University between 1949-1950, married in 1953 and established a mixed farm at Kariong near Gosford. He wrote stories about the fat, lazy Bottersnikes and the giggling Gumbles, initially for his own children. The Bottersnikes and Gumbles stories are full of absurd situations, humour and puns, and they overlay a respect for the environment.

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Captain Deadlight's Treasure North Ryde : Angus and Robertson , 1990 Z846817 1990 single work children's fiction children's adventure humour
1991 shortlisted CBCA Book of the Year Awards Book of the Year: Younger Readers
Last amended 19 Nov 2012 16:13:59
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