Anna Ciddor

Anna Ciddor was brought up in a house without television, so she and her two younger sisters were very creative. They loved reading, writing, drawing, and making up plays. One of their favourite activities was drawing pictures of characters on cards and acting out stories about them. Anna was fascinated by the past and when she was about ten years old, she started writing a novel about a boy in ancient Roman times…

50 years on, she is now an award-winning author of almost 60 books covering topics as diverse as history, travel, fantasy, biography, and family history. In her recent novel, The Boy Who Stepped Through Time (2021) she finally finished her story about ancient Romans! It immediately hit the best-seller lists and was longlisted for the 2021 ARA Historical Novel Society Australasia Prize. In 2021 Anna also won the Nance Donkin Literary Award.

Her first career was as a senior school maths teacher but once she’d had her own children, she decided to try getting a book published. When her children were young, she used them as models for her illustrations and tested out her stories on them. Nowadays her inspiration comes from her grandchildren and school visits.

Anna’s meticulous work has been recognised by a grant from the Literature Board of the Australia Council, and three of her novels have been selected as Notable Books by the Children’s Book Council of Australia, as well as being shortlisted for numerous other awards. They have been made into audio books and translated and published around the world.

Anna is an inspiring presenter and loves sharing her knowledge of research, planning, drafts and editing. She loves research so much that she often has to drag herself away to force her to write.

Her favourite food is porridge, “as long as it’s cooked in a saucepan until the bottom becomes all brown and chewy”! She tricks her grandchildren into eating vegetables by mixing them into scrambled eggs. She’s terrified of moths but LOVES butterflies