ABOUT DIANNE BATES
(also known as Di and Daisy and Aunty Di Di)

Born: Sydney, 20 March, 1948 (she’s really old, eh?)

Sister: Volda (she got the interesting name)

Brother: Larry

Lives: Woonona (near Wollongong NSW, within sight of the Pacific Ocean)

Husband: Bill Condon, also a children’s author!

Children: Claire (b.1969, married to Benoit, lives in Ottawa, Canada)
Kathleen (b.1971 d 1973)
Ashley (b 1988) former foster daughter, attends Randwick Girls HS
Paul (b 1991) foster son, attends Woonona East PS

Schools attended (all in NSW): Carlton PS; Mortdale PS; Appin PS; Campbelltown HS; Wollongong Teachers’ College; Wollongong University

Schools where Di taught: Padstow Park PS; Canterbury PS: Belmore South PS; Our Lady of Lourdes, Earlwood; Holsworthy PS: Randwick PS; Prestons PS; Wollongong University

Jobs: Nurses assistant; bookshop assistant; dishwasher; factory hand; newsletter editor; journalist and newspaper editor; children’s magazine editor; teacher; schools’ performer; storyteller-in-residence; manager of children’s arts and crafts’ centre; manuscript assessor; bookseller

First book written: Terri

Hobbies: Reading, swimming, playing Scrabble (in tournaments), movies, watching TV, painting, visiting friends, cycling, exploring the internet

Likes: Children, opera, the ocean, being lazy, playing with my dog Sassy, freedom

Dislikes: Cruelty to children, drunkeness, cigarette smoke, loud discordant music, selfish people

Favourite places: Anywhere with Bill, home, near the sea, also Coogee Women’s Pool, the Isle of Capri, London

Favourite animal: goat

Favourite bird: toucan

Favourite flower: daffodil

Favourite foods: ice-cream, bananas, Swiss chocolates

Favourite colour: blood red

Favourite children’s book: Where the Lilies Bloom (Bill and Vera
Cleaver)

Author friends: Bill Condon, Susanne Gervay, Moya Simons, Patricia
Bernard, Ann C Whitehead, Vashti Farrer, Mary Small, Joan Dalgleish, Richard Harland, Chris McTrustry, Hazel Edwards, Edel Wignell, Randall Beth Platt (USA) and lots more!