Cirrus@Austlit

William Mayne, 'widely admired and unconventional British children's author' according to the Oxford Companion to Children's Literature (1984), was the eldest of the five children of a doctor. From 1937 until 1942 he was a student and choirboy at Canterbury Cathedral Choir School after which his education continued in an irregular fashion until 1945. He had written a novel by the age of sixteen and soon decided on a literary career. His first published children's book appeared in 1953 and continued to produce high quality work at a prolific rate.

In 1976 he visited Australia, lecturing in creative writing at Deakin University, after which he wrote the listed Salt River Times (1980), set around the suburb of Footscray and the Maribyrnong River in Melbourne.