Leslie Rees (author)

Leslie Rees (1905-2000) was an Australian author and writer for children who was born and raised in Perth Western Australia.^[1]

He attended Perth Modern School and then the University of Western Australia, where he edited the student magazine, Black Swan. He then worked for The West Australian as a journalist before travelling to London to study at University College on a scholarship. It was while there that he married fellow West Australian, Coralie Clarke, who had been a sub-editor during his time on the Black Swan.^[1]

Rees returned to Australia in 1936 to become the Australian Broadcasting Commission's first federal drama editor in Sydney. He was also President of PEN (Sydney) for a number of years.

As a writer Rees is best known as a prolific author of children's books as well as written travel books, plays and an autobiography.

He died in Sydney on 17 August 2000.^[1]

Bibliography

Novel

• Danger Patrol (1954)

Children's fiction

• Digit Dick on the Barrier Reef (1942)
• The Story of Shy the Platypus (1944)
• Gecko : The Lizard Who Lost His Tail (1944)
• The Story of Karrawingi the Emu (1946)
• Digit Dick and the Tasmanian Devil (1946)
• The Story of Sarli the Barrier Reef Turtle (1947)
• The Story of Kurri Kurri the Kookaburra (1948)
• Bluecap and Bimbi : The Blue Wrens (1948)
• Mates of the Kurlalong (1948)
• Quokka Island (1951)
• The Story of Aroora the Red Kangaroo (1952)
• Digit Dick in the Black Swan Land (1952)
• Two Thumbs : The Story of a Koala (1953)
• The Story of Koonawarra the Black Swan (1957)
• Digit Dick and the Lost Opals (1957)
• The Story of Wy-lah the Cockatoo (1959)
• The Story of Russ the Australian Tree Kangaroo (1964)
• Boy Lost of Tropic Coast : Adventure Dexter Hardy (1968)
• The Big Book of Digit Dick (1973)
• Mokee, the White Possum (1973)
• Panic in Cattle Country (1974)
• Here's to Shane (1977)
• Digit Dick and the Magic Jabiru (1981)
• Digit Dick and the Zoo Plot (1982)
• The Seagull Who Liked Cricket (1997)

Drama

• The Man With the Money : A Drama (1948)
• The Harp in the South (1949) - based on the Ruth Park novel of the same title
• Modern Short Plays (1951) edited
• Mask and Microphone : Plays (1963) edited

Travel

• Spinifex Walkabout : Hitch-hiking in Remote North Australia (1953)
• Westward from Cocos : Indian Ocean Travels (1956)
• Coasts of Cape York : travels around Australia's pearl-tipped peninsula (1960)

Autobiography

• Hold Fast to Dreams : Fifty Years in Theatre, Radio, Television and Books (1982)

Awards

• 1946 winner Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers — The Story of Karrawingi the Emu^[2]

References