Judith Ridge
Yes, that's me. I guess I am about 4 years old in that photo, and it shows one of my earliest attempts to get into print... It was taken outside our house in Katoomba, where I lived from the age of 12 months to 7 years, in the Methodist parsonage attached to the church my dad was then minister of.
The photo to the top right of it shows me, the littlest one in the foreground, with my siblings (l-r) Linda, Alison and David, and my mother, Edith, on the sand at MacMasters Beach, where we had a holiday house. Dad (Barry) is behind the lens. Aren't we remarkably colour-coordinated? (And thrifty: I well remember wearing the cossies Linda has on in this photo, which means--Hand-Me-Downs!)
Under the 60s family beach shot (is that Moondoggie in the background?) is a photo of my cat Bridie. Yes, I'm a sad cat-blogger. Bridie is a very literary feline. She is named for Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited, as she was born on the anniversary of Waugh’s birthday (28th October), and she is caught in this photo pondering Arthur Slade’s novel Dust. (Bridie will be 18 on her next birthday. I think she deserves a photo!)
And what about me at a somewhat more advanced age than is shown in the photograph?
Until recently, I was an editor on the staff of an Australian literary magazine for primary school aged children that has been in print since 1916. Now I am a journalist on the staff newspaper for an educational institution. I also write freelance articles and reviews for publications such as The Horn Book, Magpies, Viewpoint and The Melbourne Age. I teach a short course in writing for children at the Sydney Writers' Centre. I have recently submitted a Masters thesis on the subject of Feminist Criticism, Narrative Theory and the Fairy Tale Retellings of Donna Jo Napoli. One day/year/lifetime I hope to expand the topic for a doctorate.
In the past, I've been an English teacher, a community arts coordinator, a children's specialist bookseller, and in 2001 I received a Churchill Fellowship and spent four months travelling the USA, Ireland and the UK, visiting literature and literacy programs for children and teenagers. I have since had two more trips to the USA, where I have been guest speaker about Australian children's literature at various universities, conferences and festivals.
I don't have enough hours in the day to read, watch or listen to even a fraction of what I want to read, watch and listen to.
I am inordinately proud of my seven nieces and nephews, and I adore without reason the children of my closest friends.
I've been married. I'm not, for a long time now.
I like cats better than dogs, but I really like dogs.
I can't have a dog where I live, so I take my nearly-every-day walk (in summer!) at a nearby off-leash dog park, which then takes me onto one of Sydney's most glorious walks, the Bay Walk.
My desert island foods would be potato, cheese and fruit. And protein. I can live happily without lollies, chocolate or desert.
I love my gadgets, but I am very bad at reading the instructions.
As an undergraduate, the only subject I failed was Shakespeare. I remain deeply embarrassed. However, the comment from my examiner will, I trust, go on my epitaph: "Ambles amiably towards mediocrity".
I share my birthday with Edgar Allen Poe, Nina Bawden, John Raitt, Johnny O'Keefe, Patricia Highsmith, Paul Cezanne, Dolly Parton, Robert Palmer, Tippi Hedren, Julian Barnes and Janis Joplin.
As you can tell from my side bar of favourites, I am not very good at narrowing down the things I am fond of.
Name: Judith Ridge
Birthday: 19th January 1964
Hometown: Ashfield, NSW
I'm a journalist, editor, freelance writer and critic, blogger and teacher.
Quote: More than this, I believe that the only lastingly important form of writing is writing for children. It is writing that is carried in the reader's heart for a lifetime; it is writing that speaks to the future.
Sonya Hartnett
Sonya Hartnett
Children’s Writers: Diana Wynne Jones, Philip Pullman, Lewis Carroll, Ursula Dubosarsky, Pamela Freeman, Donna Jo Napoli, Cassandra Golds, Libby Gleeson, Margaret Wild, Geoffrey McSkimming, Katherine Paterson, Hilary McKay, Elizabeth Honey, Meme McDonald, Cynthia Voigt, Jan Mark, Geraldine McCaughrean, Margaret Mahy, Steven Herrick, Joan Aiken, Charles Butler, Melina Marchetta, Alison Uttley, Sam Swope, Ethel Turner, David Almond, Alan Ahlberg, Jill Paton Walsh, Garth Nix (and if I’ve left your name off, you know I love you!)
Illustrators: Stephen Axelsen, Kim Gamble, Lauren Child, Helen Oxenbury, Donna Rawlins, Kerry Millard, Tohby Riddle, PJ Lynch, Bagram Ibatoulline, Chris Raschka, Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick, Charles Keeping, Maurice Sendak, William Steig, Janet Ahlberg, Nonny Hogrogian,
Other Writers: Tim Winton, Barbara Trapido, Barbara Vine/Ruth Rendell, The Brontës, Jane Austen, Armistead Maupin, Helen Garner, Samuel Pepys, Winston Graham, Jane Gardam, Nina Bawden, Marina Warner, Gregory Maguire, William Shakespeare, Joyce Carol Oates, Pat Barker, Annie Proulx, Jasper Fforde, Connie Willis, Ian McEwan
Movies: Holiday (1938), Dogma, A Star is Born (1954), Sense and Sensibility, Amateur, The Man with Two Brains, Love Actually, High Fidelity, GalaxyQuest, Say Anything, The Breakfast Club, Cabaret, Shakespeare in Love, Walk the Line, Fame, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Tootsie, The Frighteners, Simple Men, Moulin Rouge, Heaven Can Wait
TV Shows: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Veronica Mars, Six Feet Under, Oz, Northern Exposure, Wonderfalls, Freaks and Geeks, Red Dwarf, Sex & the City, Firefly, Grey’s Anatomy, Mad About You, Little Britain, Wire in the Blood, McCallum, Dead Like Me, Lost, Weeds
Musicians: Sarah Harmer, Jeff Buckley, Australian Crawl, Billy Bragg, Fiona Apple, Kirsty MacColl, Cold Chisel, Tori Amos, ABBA, The Cure, U2, Luka Bloom, Melanie Oxley, Hoodoo Gurus, REM, Kate Bush, Elvis Costello, Robyne Dunn, EBTG, Crowded House, Ricki Lee Jones, Paul Kelly, Beth Orton, Queen, Judie Tzuke
About Me
