Margaret Dawn Paice (1 September 1920 – 19 November 2016) was an Australian

children's writer Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

commercial art Commercial art is the art of creative services, referring to art created for commercial purposes, primarily advertising. Commercial art uses a variety of platforms (magazines, websites, apps, television, etc.) for viewers with the intent of promo ...

ist and

book illustrator The illustration of manuscript books was well established in ancient times, and the tradition of the illuminated manuscript thrived in the West until the invention of printing. Other parts of the world had comparable traditions, such as the Pers ...

Early life and education

Margaret Dawn Cantle was born in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

, Australia on 1 September 1920, daughter of Violet (née Burman) and Sydney Cantle. Paice was raised in rural Queensland and was educated locally and through correspondence schooling, before attending Moreton Bay High School.

Career

Paice had several poems published in ''

The Central Queensland Herald ''The Central Queensland Herald'' was a newspaper published in Rockhampton, Queensland from 1930 to 1956; it was created with the merger of '' The Artesian'' and ''The Capricornian''. History ''The Central Queensland Herald'' was published fr ...

'' in 1937. In 1942 she married Hubert Whitfield Paice. He died in 1955 and Paice moved to Sydney, where she studied at the

National Art School The National Art School (NAS) is a tertiary level art school, located in , an inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The school is an independent accredited higher education provider offering specialised study in studio arts p ...

and the Royal Art Society, gaining employment as a commercial artist. Paice wrote and illustrated her first book, ''Mirram'', in 1955. It was commended in the picture book category of the 1955

Children's Book Council of Australia The Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) is a not for profit organisation which aims to engage the community with literature for young Australians. The CBCA presents the annual Children's Book of the Year Awards to books of literary merit ...

Book of the Year awards. She provided illustrations for her own and other books published by Angus & Robertson, including three books by Ann E. Wells. ''

Colour in the Creek ''Colour in the Creek'' is a 1985 Australian children's TV series. It was made with a budget of $1.6 million and was adapted from the novel by Margaret Paice Margaret Dawn Paice (1 September 1920 – 19 November 2016) was an Australian chil ...

'' was a ten-episode television series adapted from Paice's novel of the same name and ''Shadow of Wings''. It was shown on TCN 9.Albert Moran, ''Moran's Guide to Australian TV Series'', AFTRS 1993 p 122 In 1960 she married Wilfred Harriss, who died in 1975. She moved to the Blue Mountains in 1969 and later to Queensland. In 1978 she was interviewed by

Hazel de Berg Hazel Estelle de Berg (21 March 1913 – 3 February 1984) was a pioneer of oral history in Australia. Between 1957 and 1984 she produced 1291 hour-long sound tape reels of interviews with writers, historians, artists, musicians and scientists a ...

for 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 ...

's oral history collection. Her papers, including letters and original artwork, are held by the

State Library of New South Wales The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public and is one of the oldest libraries in Australia. Establish ...

. Margaret Paice died in

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

, Queensland on 19 November 2016, at the age of 96.

Selected works

Author and illustrator

Fiction

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Trilogy: ''Colour in the creek''

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Nonfiction

Illustrator

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References

External links

Photograph of Margaret Paice
taken by Hazel de Berg for the National Library of Australia on 1 March 1978 {{DEFAULTSORT:Paice, Margaret 1920 births 2016 deaths Australian children's writers 20th-century Australian women writers Australian women illustrators