Elisabeth MacIntyre (born Elisabeth Innes MacIntyre, also spelled Elizabeth MacIntyre; 1916–2004) was an Australian writer and illustrator. She mainly produced children's picture books and cartoon strips, but also created cartoon strips for adults and novels for young adults. She is recognised as "a staunch advocate of promoting Australian animals and surrounds in an era when the majority of children's books were imported from England". Her picture books appealed for their lively, bright illustrations and "irresistible", "infectious", stories (several in rhyme), which used line and words economically and effectively. She was successful in the Australian, American and British markets, and some of her novels were also translated into German and Japanese. Her best known works are Ambrose Kangaroo, Susan, Who Lives in Australia (also published as Katherine), and Hugh's Zoo, for which she won the Australian Children's Book of the Year Award: Picture Book in 1965. Biography MacIntyre was born in Sydney on 1 November 1916, the daughter of John Norman MacIntyre, owner of a station near Burketown, North Queensland, and his wife Laura Minnie (née Rendall). She had one brother and one sister (playwright Peggy C. MacIntyre), and grew up in country New South Wales. Her grandfather Donald MacIntyre, of Dalgonally Station in north Queensland, was the cousin of Duncan McIntyre, an explorer. MacIntyre became deaf in her teenage years as a result of an accident. She attended first Sydney Church of England Girls Grammar School, and then Bowral High School. She studied commercial art at East Sydney Technical College, and credited Thea Proctor for giving her encouragement and inspiration in her art. She worked as a graphic designer, starting at a printing company in Woolloomooloo, where her first job was to design display cards, and then at an advertising company, where she designed soap and cosmetics packaging. During World War II, MacIntyre worked as a fruit picker in the Women's Land Army. She married artist John Roy Eldershaw in about 1950; they had one daughter, and lived at Narrabeen, in Sydney's Northern Beaches area. When her marriage ended, MacIntyre took other jobs, including working in the display section of department store David Jones. Career Ambrose Kangaroo MacIntyre sketched ideas for toys and children's books while working on her assigned tasks at the advertising agency. She published her first book, Ambrose Kangaroo, in Sydney in 1941. She also sent it to Scribner's in the US, who published it the following