Fantasy Fiction Authors

Roald Dahl was born in South Wales in 1916 but sadly died in 1990.

Dahl served in the Royal Air Force in World War II, attaining the rank of wing commander. During his military service, he was injured. Later, when those injuries flared up, Dahl was sent home to England. Then, he was sent to Washington, D.C. to work at the British Embassy. It was while working as an assistant air attache that Dahl began his writing career. His first children's book, The Gremlins, was published in 1943. He did go on to write for adults, but he did not write another children's book for 17 years. Dahl said that it was not until he had children of his own that he felt he could write for children.

Roald Dahl is a very famous children’s author who has written many books including

The BFG
The Witches
James and the Giant Peach
The Gremlins
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

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 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. 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.
Some famous books by Gary Crew include
· The Watchtower
· Tagged
No Such Country. A Book of Antipodean Hours

Joanne Rowling
Rowling admits to having been a bit of a daydreamer as a child and began writing stories at the age of six. After leaving Exeter University, where she read French and Classics, she started work as a teacher but daydreamed about becoming a writer. One day, stuck on a delayed train for four hours between Manchester and London, she dreamed up a boy called "Harry Potter". That was in 1990. It took her six years to write the book. In the meantime, she went to teach in Portugal, married a Portuguese television journalist, had her daughter, Jessica, divorced her husband and returned to Britain when Jessica was just three months old. She went to live in Edinburgh to be near her sister, Di. Her sudden penury made her realize that it was "back-against-the-wall time" and she decided to finish her "Harry Potter" book. She sent the manuscript to two agents and one publisher, looking up likely prospects in the library. One of these agents that she picked at random based on the fact that she liked his name, Christopher Little, was immediately captivated by the manuscript and signed her on as his client within three days. During the 1995-1996 time-frame, while hoping to get the manuscript for "Harry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone" published, Rowling worked as a French teacher in Edinburgh. Several publishers turned down the manuscript before Bloomsbury agreed to purchase it in 1996. She still lives in Britain today.
Her famous books include:

Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry potter and the Goblet of Fire, etc