Kurt Fearnley the paralympic Gold Medallist and Marathan Man of Wheelchair Sports had the audience standing, cheering, clapping.
He climbed the Kokoda Track on his hands and knees. it was gruelling, courageous, but he was showing that disability unites us.
He was a boy from the country. He never walked but he explored, climbed trees, played footy with the other kids, on his hands and knees.
I loved his courage.
Governor Marie Bashir and ABC radio announcer Adam Spencer celebrated him.
There were sports people, writers, business people, Ita Buttrose Australian of the Year packing the Conservatorium of Music in Sydney.
Cuaght up with Stephan Wellink the Executive Producer of the feature film ‘I Am Jack’, best selling author and actor Judy Nunn, children’s non fiction author Jill Bruce, ABC announcer and artist Yianni Johns.
The night was balmy, the speech inspiring, the Conservatorium overlooking the Botantical Gardens towards the harbour was a special night.
LOVE being an Australia Day Ambassador.
It’s been a wonderfully chaotic August Book Month especially with National Year of Reading – authors and illustrators visiting schools everywhere.
Some favourites this week were:-
- ‘Ships in the Field’ with Truscott Street Public School North Ryde. They loved the journey of escaping war to find home here and especially loved my Order of Australia medals I shared with them.
- ‘I Am Jack’ with Curl Curl North kids and teachers who really engaged in No to School Bullying with ‘I Am Jack’ .
- ‘Ships in the Field’, and ‘I Am Jack’ with McAuley Catholic School Rose Bay.
Loved them all.
I got the chance to share the National Year of Reading – www.love2read.org – with the kids and teachers
And the Carpet Court Storybook Challenge on radio with David Collins on 106.9 FM .
Carpet Court Storybook Challenge brings authors to schools where we inspire kids to love reading; as well as submit an illustrated story about their love of their community to the Storybook Challenge.
www.facebook.com/CarpetCourt.
One of my favourite photos of 2011
Order of Australia OAM Susanne Gervay
is when the Governor Professor Bashir, the first woman to be appointed Governor of New South Wales, presented me with an Order 0f Australia (OAM) for children’s literature and other associations at Government House
Dr Bashir is a leading light in children’s services, psychiatry and mental health services, and indigenous health programs. and when appointed was Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Sydney ; Area Director of Mental Health Services Central Sydney ; and Senior Consultant to the Aboriginal Medical Service, Redfern and to the Aboriginal Medical Service, Kempsey.
She is patron of the Children’s Book Council. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1988 for her services to child and adolescent health; and was invested by Her Majesty, the Queen, with the insignia of a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in 2006.
The great Brisitsh novelist and social commentator Charles Dickens requested that there be no monument or memorial to him.
However there are two statues in the world of Charles Dickens. One is in Philedelphia USA and one in Centennial Parklands.
The Charles Dickens statue was commissioned by Sir Henry Parkes in 1889 and installed in the Parklands in 1891.
The statue mysteriously disappeared. The past few years has seen a huge search by the NSW Dickens Society. It was uncovered in the Blue Mountain- missing its head!
The statue was reconstructed by the stonemasons of NSW Heritage Services.
You HAVE to visit this imposing marble statue, so right for a Victorian Parklands with its heritage of writers. Noble Prize winner for Literature Patrick White’s ashes are scattered in the Parklands.
Susannah Fullerton,President of the Jane Austen Society of Australia and author, gave a funny, sad, moving recitation of the heads cut off in Dickens’ works.
Minister for Major Events Hon Kevin Greene, her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir Governor of NSW as well as senior stonemason Paul Thurloe gave wonderful speeches. Lots of Writing Associations were represented there including the Bronte Association and the Dickens Society. I was there wearing the NSW Writers Centre hat, as well as being a Dickens fan and an author myself.
Charles Dickens is officially unveiled.
Keep this date open:
200th birthday of Charles Dickens 7the February 2012.
Kurt Fearnley the paralympic Gold Medallist and Marathan Man of Wheelchair Sports had the audience standing, cheering, clapping.
