Ribit Authors

Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl was one of the greatest story-tellers of all time. He was born in Llanduff, South Wales, of Norwegian parents, in 1916, and educated in English boarding-schools. Then, in search of adventure, the young Dahl took a job with Shell Oil in Africa. When World War II broke out he joined the RAF as a fighter pilot, receiving terrible injuries and almost dying in a plane crash in 1942. It was following this "monumental bash on the head" and a meeting with C. S. Forester (author of the famous Captain Horatio Hornblower stories) that Roald Dahl's writing career began, with articles for magazines such as The New Yorker. He wrote successful novellas and short stories for adults, such as Tales of the Unexpected, before concentrating on his marvelous children's stories. The first of these, James and the Giant Peach, in 1960, was followed by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and an unbroken string of hugely successful, best-selling titles. Roald Dahl worked from a tiny hut in the pale orchard of the Georgian house in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire which he shared with his wife, Liccy. He was always brimming with new ideas and his many books continue to bring enormous enjoyment to millions of children and their parents throughout the world. Roald Dahl died on November 23, 1990.

Gary Crew

Gary David Crew was born in Brisbane, Queensland, on the 23rd September, 1947. Gary was very ill as a child and since he was too sick to play sport he began to read widely. He has never lost the habit. Gary attended State Primary and High Schools in Brisbane [English and Art were his favourite subjects] leaving school aged 16 to become a cadet Civil Engineering Draftsman. Gary had always loved drawing and believed that drawing roads and bridges would satisfy him. But after he had graduated from the Queensland Institute of Technology and worked in a drawing office for ten years as a design draftsman, he became bored and decided to become an art teacher. Gary had married by this time and he and his wife Christine had two daughters, Rachel and Sarah. Having to support children meant that Gary could not take up the three year Art scholarship, so he turned to English teaching. He finished his university studies while he was teaching, gaining a Master of Arts in Literature from the Queensland University.
Christine and Gary's son, Joel, was born in 1978 and completed their family.
Gary began to write when he was a High School teacher. His first audience was his Year 10 Manual Arts Boys' class 'who never seemed to be able to find books to suit them'. Although Gary never thought that he would be published and become an author - he loved teaching too much - his first novel, The Inner Circle, was published in 1985. In 1989, when his many literary studies and interests became too much, Gary gave up teaching to write full time.
Gary and Christine now live in a cottage in the tiny rural township of Maleny, set among the cool, rainforest mountains of the Sunshine Coast Hinterland. Their children have grown up and left home. Rachel and Sarah both have law degrees while Joel is a professional golfer. Gary and Christine have three dogs: Ferris, Beuller and Miss Wendy. Ferris and Beuller have been made famous in Troy Thompson's Excellent Peotry Book which Gary and Craig Smith helped Troy write.
Gary now divides his time between developing a country garden, reading, watching videos, writing, editing and lecturing in Creative Writing at the University of the Sunshine Coast.


J.k Rowing
Joanne Rowling, author of the best-selling Harry Potter series of books, was born in Chipping Sodbury, near Bristol, in southwest England. Her birthday, as true Harry Potter fans know, is July 31, the same as her famous boy-wizard hero.
J. K. RowlingSource/AP Photos
The family, including her parents and younger sister Di, lived in Yate and then Winterbourne, also near Bristol. Her father worked on airplane engines for Rolls Royce. When Joanne was nine, the Rowlings moved to Tutshill, near Chepstow, England, close to the border of Wales.

School Days

Joanne—called Jo by her family and friends—did well in school, and in her senior year was the top girl in her class. In fact, Rowling has said that as a child she resembled Hermione Granger, Harry's obsessively studious friend, whom she modeled after herself. Although, Rowling notes, "I was neither as clever or as annoying (I hope!)." At school, Rowling's favorite subjects were English and foreign languages. She particularly enjoyed reading books such as Manxmouse by Paul Gallico, about a creature with a mouse's body, rabbit's ears, and monkey's paws, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and other books in C. S. Lewis's Narnia series.
A Storyteller from the Start

After graduating from public school with top honors in English, French, and German, Rowling went on to study French at the University of Exeter. She earned her degree in 1986 and over the next several years held a variety of secretarial jobs, including one at a publishing firm, where she had to send out rejection letters to prospective authors. What she really wanted to do, however, was write. Rowling wrote her first story, Rabbit, about a rabbit with measles, at age five or six. Later, she tried her hand at writing novels, for adults. But she never finished writing any novel before she wrote the Harry Potter books.

Harry Potter Is Born

Rowling started writing the first Harry Potter book in 1990. The idea for Harry—a lonely, downtrodden 11-year-old orphan who learns he is actually a wizard when he is magically invited to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry—came to Rowling while she was stuck on a delayed train between Manchester and London. Although she left England a short time later to teach English in Portugal, Rowling continued to flesh out Harry's story. Rowling returned to Britain in 1993, settling in Edinburgh, Scotland, to be near her sister. Divorced after a brief marriage in Portugal and now with a baby, she suffered through a period of poverty and depression while she struggled to earn a living and take care of her daughter, Jessica. It was during this difficult time that she finally completed Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which was renamed Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for the U.S. edition. When her publisher suggested she add a middle initial to her name, she chose that of her grandmother, Kathleen.

Success at Last

Following its publication in Britain in June 1997, the book quickly became a hit with children and adults alike and won numerous awards, including the British Book Awards' Children's Book of the Year. Rowling always envisioned the book as part of a seven-volume series—one book for every year that Harry spends at Hogwarts—and a new Harry Potter book appeared every year for the next three years. These were Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000). These were followed by two short books from Harry Potter's world, Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2001). The profits from those two went to a British charity, Comic Relief. Rowling's road to fame and fortune may have been a bit rocky at times, but her success has been sure. In 2000, the 35-year-old author became the highest-earning woman in Britain, netting more than £20.5 million (about $30 million) over the previous year. She received an OBE (Order of the British Empire), a medal of achievement awarded by the queen, in March 2001. At the end of that same year, she married her second husband, Dr. Neil Murray. On March 23, 2003, Rowling's second child, David Gordon Rowling Murray, was born. She gave birth to a baby girl, Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray, on January 25, 2005.

Not Just Another Best-Seller

On June 21, 2003, three months after David was born, the fifth book of the Harry Potter series was released. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix broke—no, shattered—no, obliterated—the previous record for first-day sales by a book, which had been set by Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The fourth book sold 372,775 copies in the United Kingdom the day it was released; the fifth one sold almost 1.8 million. The United States sales figures were even more impressive. All told, Order of the Phoenix sold about seven million copies the day it was released. The Harry Potter books have been translated into more than 60 languages, and it has been estimated that more than 300 million copies have been sold around the world. The first four books have been made into films: Sorcerer's Stone made more than $950 million; Chamber of Secrets, more than $850 million; Prisoner of Azkaban, more than $780 million; and Goblet of Fire, more than $890 million. All four are among the top twenty highest-grossing films of all time. In February 2004, Forbes magazine estimated that Rowling had £576 million, or more than a billion dollars. This would make her the first person ever to become a billionaire from writing books. On July 16, 2005, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was released, destroying the previous book's sales records; on the first day of sales, it sold 6.9 million copies in the United States alone. That's about 80 copies per second!








Eion Colfer

Eoin (pronounced 'Owen') was born in Wexford, a picturesque coastal town in the southeast corner of Ireland, 14 May 1965.A former schoolteacher, Eoin still lives in Wexford with his wife Jackie and son Finn. He has worked in Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Italy, as well as in Ireland.Eoin is very involved in theatre and has written several plays, which have been staged in various parts of Ireland.His first novel, Benny and Omar, was published by The O'Brien Press in October 1998 and was an immediate bestseller. It was applauded by critics because of its comic genius.International recognition soon followed as translation rights were sold to various publishers abroad. His second book, Benny and Babe was published in June 1999.

Benny and Babe became a No 1 bestseller in Ireland, knocking the famous Harry Potter out of the top spot in the Bestseller List! It wasn't until Artemis Fowl was published that Colfer found critical success over the shores of the Irish Sea. When presented to publishers by his agent, the book initiated a furious bidding war and was eventually bought by Viking, a deal which left Bloomsbury (the home of Harry Potter) anxious to see whether the book could weave the same kind of magic.Artemis Fowl received an option from Miramax and ?700,000 in advances (the largest amount ever to be received by an unknown author).


Emily Rodda
Emily Rodda grew up with her two younger brothers on Sydney's North Shore and graduated from the University of Sydney in 1973 with an MA (Hons) in English Literature. Always an avid reader, she moved naturally into a career in publishing, first as a book editor, and finally as a publisher at Angus & Robertson.
Emily Rodda’s first book, Something Special, was published in 1984. It marked the beginning of a career that has seen her become one of the most successful, prolific and versatile writers in Australia. She has written or co-authored well over fifty books for children, and as Jennifer Rowe (her real name) she writes popular mystery novels for adults. Her children’s books range from picture books to YA novels, and include the award-winning Rowan series and the outstandingly successful Deltora Quest fantasy series. Winner of the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Book of the Year (Younger Readers) Award a record five times, she seems to know instinctively what children want to read.
She has been a full-time writer since 1994. "I feel very lucky to have a job I love so much," she says. Her four children, including twin boys, have given her plenty of inspiration over the years. "None of the characters in my books are exactly like anyone I know, but all of them have things in common with people I know. Everyone writes from his or her own experience. I look at people I know and listen to them and when I am trying to think of a new character, these things come back to me."
All Emily Rodda’s books are testament to her exception storytelling ability. She describes the Rowan books, which combine a classic quest storyline with a series of riddling mysteries to be solved, as being "the most pleasurable to write". Other books, like Dog Tales, which looks at the lives of a gang of neighbourhood dogs, demonstrate her wonderful talent for comedy. Her plots are always beautifully crafted. "I love things that all tie up… There’s no little clue that doesn’t have a meaning and I suppose it’s the fascination for someone who likes word games or likes doing tapestry… maybe it’s a response to the general messiness of life, but I find it very satisfying."
And important influence on her writing was the world of the media. Her father was a TV executive, and she grew up with "the ratings" and a great respect for the demands of the marketplace. She acknowledges the need for escapist books as well as those that are more literary.
In 1995 Emily Rodda won the prestigious Dromkeen Medal. The judges of the award said of her that she "maintains a prolific writing schedule, continues to provide a role model in promoting children’s literature, and still spends many hours sharing her love of books with children and educators".