About Felicity Pulman
I grew up (a long time ago!) in a small bush town in Africa. No TV, iPods, computer games and surfing the internet – you could say I had a very deprived childhood! Not so. Instead, for entertainment I 
learned to read. Books became my windows to the world: they told me about dragons and fairies and magic. They told me about other countries and other cultures. They told me about myself. And I have never stopped reading, because I love stories.
I guess I always did things back to front – the hard way! In Africa, when I ran out of books to read, I wrote my own. I love writing stories, but I never thought about it as a grownup occupation. As a grownup, I had to go back to school to find out that I really was a writer. After doing the HSC at the age of 40, I went on to do a BA (Communications) degree at UTS. My major was creative writing, and suddenly I found myself experimenting with all sorts of genres and, in particular, writing the sorts of stories that I love to read – crime and timeslip fantasy back into the past.
I then went on to do an MA in Children's Literature at Macquarie University, during which time two novels for children were published: Three's a Crowd (written under the pseudonym Anne Holmes) published by Pan Macmillan, and Ghost Boy, now published by Random House Australia. Wally the Water Dragon (Blake Education) and Surfing the Future (Wendy Pye NZ) came next.
Then my beloved dog, Bonnie, died, and out of that sad and dreadful time came the Shalott trilogy (published by Random House Australia). In these three novels, five teenagers zap back in time to the court of King Arthur with the intention of rewriting the legend in order to save Camelot and also save the life of 'The Lady of Shalott'. Everything goes wrong and, instead, they find they're actually creating part of the legend while also rewriting their lives and their future. Read the poem 'The Lady of Shalott' by Alfred Lord Tennyson.
After the Shalott trilogy, I cast about for another fascinating piece of Australian history to write about (as I had for Ghost Boy) but I discovered that my heart, and my dreaming, were still in medieval England. And so The Janna Mysteries were born, combining my love of crime and medieval time in an exciting romance set in the 1140's: a time of civil war and great danger in England's history.
One thing I really enjoy about writing is researching the places where my books are set. I spent a lot of time at the Quarantine Station in Sydney when writing Ghost Boy, which has a flashback to the grim and grisly conditions there during a smallpox outbreak in 1881.
To research the Shalott trilogy, I followed 'the Arthurian trail' in the UK, looking at many of the sites associated with King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table. Click on the images below to see 'the sacred Isle of Avalon' and 'Arthur's grave' at Glastonbury.
See Felicity's Wikipedia page.
These two photos show the site of King Arthur's grave among the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey
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Two Romano-British warriors, a Saxon wench and the author
I have visited England three times to research my medieval crime series for teenagers, The Janna Mysteries. Book 1 - Rosemary for Remembrance, Book 2 – Rue for Repentance, Book 3 - Lilies for Love and Book 4 - Willows for Weeping are all published by Random House Australia. There are two more novels to finish Janna's quest: Book 5 - Sage for Sanctuary and Book - 6 Thyme for Trust, and I am currently negotiating to publish them both as e-books and 'real' books, to be available for sale through amazon.com.
The Janna Mysteries are on the Victorian Premier's Reading Challenge list.
I am currently working on Hearts in Chains, a time-slip story for teenagers begun while on a May Gibbs Fellowship earlier this year in Adelaide. The novel is set partly during the convict past at Norfolk Island, and I recently returned from a wonderful research trip there. See more about Norfolk Island on my News page.
I am a member of Booked Out speakers agency, with many years' experience talking to students, teachers and librarians, and at writers' festivals in NSW and interstate about researching and writing my novels. I am also available to conduct writing workshops in various genres for both children and adults. Genres include writing a short story, creating a fantasy 'Otherworld', writing from history, life writing, and devising crimes and mysteries. I've conducted workshops around Australia for Writers Centres, the Fellowship of Australian Writers, the Society of Women Writers and other organisations including Petrea King's Quest for Life. Please visit my Workshops and Visits page to find out more about what I can offer your school or organisation.
For bookings please contact Lauris Pandolfini at Booked Out Speakers Agency, telephone (03) 9824 0177, or email: bookings@bookedout.com.au or visit their website: www.bookedout.com.au.