Elizabeth Wilton is the grand-daughter of Charles Wilton (formerly literary editor of The Advertiser) and daughter of Professor J R Wilton, Elder Professor of Maths at the University of Adelaide 1920-1944. Her father died when she was six. She grew up in a rather solitary, though not unhappy, existence, where books and reading were her greatest joys,and reading was encouraged by her mother. Immediately after the Second World War, her mother began a toymaking business in Rigby's in James Place, next to 'Children's Books'. Mrs Vera Dow, who ran 'Children's Books', was happy for Wilton to perch on the bottom step of her shelf ladder after school and read her way through all the books in her department.
Wilton was educated at the Methodist Ladies' College and later at the Friends' School, Hobart. Returning to Adelaide she completed her tertiary education at the University of Adelaide and the Adelaide Teachers' College, gaining a DipTeach. Her training was in Junior Primary and Primary, but the main thrust of her work was for children with disabilities. She taught in Education Department schools for eight years, as demonstration assistant, supervisory teacher and senior assistant, then resigned in 1964 to teach at Ashford House, a school for cerebral palsied children, where she worked at developing their language and literacy skills. She went overseas during 1960 and 1961, teaching in the East End of London and studying developments in teaching in the UK. When she returned to Australia she began writing seriously, while continuing her teaching. She gained her Advanced Skills Teacher Certificate in 1993.
Wilson retired at the end of 1996, hoping to devote more time to writing. She has been particularly interested in writing historical stories. She has also published several titles in the children's non-fiction 'Topics of Australia' series and the Rigby's Australian History and Reading Development Series of the 1960s. She married Charles Stevenson, a historian and a teacher and writer of history, with whom she edited the Quaker journal, Australian Friend from 1989 to 1996. Elizabeth edited the anthology Quaker Ways (1996).
