AustLit

The name Bett Percy actually belongs to an earlier stage of Margaret Selby-Wood's life. Maggie Chomel, as she was known then, was the daughter of William Joseph Chomel and his wife Rose (Hall). Her father died when she was 18 months old, and her mother Rose Chomel moved to Adelaide where she got work and supported her 3 children. Bett left school at fourteen. In November 1941, when she was 18, she married but three months later, in February 1942, her husband was killed. Later that year Bett joined the Australian Women's Army Service, and was in the Signal Corps In 1948 she married Kevin James Percy and they had three children. She was widowed again in 1982.

When Bett was in her fifties she took up studying again. She did Matriculation, then a 3-year 'Writing for the Media' course at TAFE. After completing these studies she organized writers' workshops and founded the Woodville Women Writers' Workshop, which later became Writers' Workshop Inc. In 1985 she was awarded the Telecom Advance Australia Fair award for the establishment of the workshops. She won the Ian Mudie Award in 1981 for a story about a little-known Australian person or event, and she won first prize in the Universitry of the 3rd Age Twin Towns International Day of Older Persons Poetry Competition 1997.

After marrying Robert Selby-Wood in 1995 she moved to New South Wales. She has worked with a composer and entertainer, and has written the words for some of his compositions.