Morris Gleitzman - Biographies. Short Biography Morris Gleitzman is a bestselling Australian children’s author.
His books explore serious and sometimes confronting subjects in humourous and unexpected ways. His titles include Two Weeks With The Queen, Grace, Doubting Thomas, Bumface, Give Peas A Chance, Extra Time, Loyal Creatures, Snot Chocolate and the series Once, Then, Now, After and Soon. Morris lives in Sydney and Brisbane, and his books are published in more than twenty countries. Long Biography Morris Gleitzman is a bestselling Australian children’s author whose books explore serious and sometimes confronting subjects in funny and unexpected ways. Morris wrote his first children’s novel in 1985. He was born in England in 1953 and emigrated to Australia in 1969. Then he gained a degree in Professional Writing at the Canberra College of Advanced Education.
Morris started his career as writer for three award-winning and top-rating seasons with the Australian TV comedy series The Norman Gunston Show. Morris Gleitzman - Literature. Morris Gleitzman’s books are aimed primarily at readers in the 8 - 12 year age range and the majority of his protagonists are similarly pre-adolescent.
His books, most of which are set in Australia, address the very real concerns of children’s lives, yet always with immense humour and a succinct and ‘punchy’ narrative style, which reflects his experience in writing comedy scripts for television. Gleitzman’s child characters are usually loveable and well-intentioned, but get into all sorts of scrapes and mishaps - in this, the influence of Gleitzman’s own childhood favourite, Richmal Crompton’s Just William series, is clear. Gleitzman tackles serious issues such as divorce, AIDS and death (including the impending death of a child in Two Weeks With the Queen (1989)), but his main focus is on the everyday needs of children and, most particularly, the way in which parents often fail to meet those needs. Elizabeth O’Reilly, 2007. Morris Gleitzman - Children's Author. 'For the last 20-plus years I have been able to earn my living doing something I love.
I think that is one of the most fortunate things that can happen to you in your life.' Morris never achieved his childhood dream of becoming a professional football player, but he did become one of Australia's most successful writers. After starting as a writer on The Norman Gunston Show, Morris managed to skip the stage of sending off countless manuscripts to publishers only to be rejected. Instead a publisher approached him to write a children's book, and he's never looked back. His funny and offbeat books often deal with big issues and are stocked around the world. Did you want to be an author when you were growing up?
I grew up in England and when I was young my aspiration was to be a professional football player. What did you do after university? I discovered that humour was something I really enjoyed, and writing for the screen seemed to be the most realistic way of earning a living. Morris Gleitzman - Once. Once I was living in an orphanage in the mountains and I shouldn’t have been and I almost caused a riot.
It was because of the carrot. When I first started planning Once I had no idea that a 10 year old Polish Jewish boy would take me on the writing journey of my life. I just wanted to write a story about a friendship. A wonderful friendship between two young people who can’t believe their luck because they’ve found what most of us want more than anything. A true friend. I knew the characters would discover that you don’t need money or heroic deeds or contacts in high places to enjoy this precious gift.
But I didn’t want the story to be too cosy and safe. So I decided to place the two young friends in the middle of the most unfriendly human behaviour possible, on the largest scale I could think of. I didn’t have to think too long about which war, or which example of huge-scale human unfriendliness. UK cover My grandfather was a Jew from Krakow in Poland. USA cover.