Patricia Wrightson

1 universe Last reviewed 2026-09-05

Patricia Wrightson, born Alice Patricia Furlonger on June 19, 1921, in Bangalow near Lismore, New South Wales, was an Australian children's author who died March 15, 2010, at age eighty-eight in Lismore. She worked in munitions during World War II and then held administrative roles at hospitals and nursing associations from 1946 to 1964, before serving as Assistant Editor and then Editor of the School Magazine in Sydney from 1964 to 1970. Across twenty-seven published books, including The Crooked Snake (1955), The Nargun and the Stars (1973), The Ice is Coming (1977), and A Little Fear (1983), she drew extensively on Australian Aboriginal mythology, employing magic realism techniques; her books have been translated into sixteen languages. She won the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for Writing in 1986, was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1977, and won the Australian Children's Book of the Year Award four times. The Patricia Wrightson Prize for children's literature, part of the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, was established in her honor.

Universe(s)

Books

• The Ice Is Coming (1977) · The Book of Wirrun Core Canon
• The Dark Bright Water (1978) · The Book of Wirrun Core Canon
• Behind the Wind (1981) · The Book of Wirrun Core Canon

Aggregate across all universes

• Total Core Canon books across all universes: 3 books
• Award recognitions across all universes: 2 (1 won, 1 nomination)

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