Henry Charles Frank Morant (188528 October 1952) was an Australian writer and photographer. He was born at

Dulverton Dulverton is a small town and civil parish in west Somerset, England, near the border with Devon. The town had a population of 1,408 at the 2011 Census. The parish includes the hamlets of Battleton and Ashwick which is located approximately ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and died at St Kilda, Victoria, Australia. ''Whirlaway: a story of the ages'' was published in 1937. A young girl, Helen, and her pet

koala The koala or, inaccurately, koala bear (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae and its closest living relatives are the w ...

, Tirri, were taken on an adventure through the ages of time by Whirlaway, an elf-like creature. The book was illustrated by Florence Jean Elder. Race Mathews believed that ''Whirlaway'' never gained the recognition that it deserved because its publication in England in 1937 coincided with the lead-up to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Few copies of the book reached Australia, and the London stocks were destroyed in

The Blitz The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'. The Germa ...

. Mathews considered that the book would have become an enduring favourite. Morant compiled an unpublished album of mounted photographs and documents on the Pioneers of Aviation. The manuscript is held by the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

. In December 1937, Morant was appointed publicity officer for the Ayrshire Cattle Herd Book Society of Australasia. He was the official photographer of some of the allied societies, and his photographs of livestock were acknowledged to be of a high standard. He was official photographer for the Kennel Control Council.The Argus 29 May 1937Page 32S.
Accessed 18 March 2015.

References

* ''The Bibliography of Australian Literature K-O'', 2007, John Arnold and John Hay (editors), page 466.

External links

The Australasian Saturday 4 December 1937, page 12.
Review of ''Whirlaway. Accessed 18 March 2015.'' * ebook o

by H F C Morant a
Project Gutenberg Australia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morant, Henry Charles Frank 1885 births 1952 deaths Australian writers 20th-century Australian photographers British emigrants to Australia