Nadia Wheatley is an Australian writer whose work includes picture books, novels, biography and history. Perhaps best known for her classic picture book My Place (illustrated by Donna Rawlins), the author's biography of Charmian Clift was described by critic Peter Craven as 'one of the greatest Australian biographies'. Another great book by her is A Banner Bold, which is an historical novel. While many of the author's books for children and young adults have been honoured in the annual awards of the Children's Book Council of Australia, in 2014 Nadia was nominated by IBBY Australia for the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing — the highest international recognition given to a living author whose complete works have made a lasting contribution to children's literature. In 2014 Wheatley was admitted by the University of Sydney to the degree of Doctor of Letters (honoris causa), in recognition of 'her exceptional creative achievements in the field of children's and adult literature, her work as an historian and her contribution to our understanding of Indigenous issues, cultural diversity, equity and social justice and the environment through story'. Life Nadia Wheatley was born and grew up in Sydney. She was educated at Meriden School, the University of Sydney (BA Hons 1970) and Macquarie University (MA Hons 1976). In 1975, Wheatley went to Greece to live, with her then-partner, poet Martin Johnston, son of Australian writers George Johnston and Charmian Clift. It was here that she began to write seriously. The couple lived in the town of Chania, Crete, and in a coastal village in the Peloponnese, and had a routine of writing six days a week. On her return to Australia in 1978 Wheatley lived in the Sydney suburb of Newtown, which provided the setting for her first three books — Five Times Dizzy, Dancing in the Anzac Deli and The House that was Eureka. After spending some years in Apollo Bay Victoria and the Blue Mountains, the author returned to Sydney in 1995, where she lives in the Cooks River Valley — the ‘place’ of her classic picture book, My Place. Career Wheatley's first book, Five Times Dizzy (1983) was acclaimed as Australia's first multicultural book for children. Awarded the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Special Children's Book Award, it became a television mini-series that went to air on the new multicultural channel SBS in 1986. The picture book, My Place, has also