AustLit

‘Before I came to Australia in 1964 I had worked in England with the Oxford University Press (editing Eleanor Falcon's The Little Bookroom, among many other publications), then as managing editor of children's books at The Bodley Head and subsequently at William Collins. Angus & Robertson (A&R) at that time had named Joyce Saxby as its first children's editor. Sadly she died shortly after her appointment, having produced two anthologies of Australian verse for children: her own One Hundred Poems Chosen for Children. During my first visit to Sydney from my home base in Adelaide, I accepted George Ferguson's challenge to build a separate young books list for A&R, the first to be formed in Australia. I worked on this from Adelaide, with regular visits to Sydney, and received wholehearted support from editors John Abernethy, Beatrice Davis and Douglas Stewart.’ (Introduction 296)