Judy is rebellious, independent, eloquent and for the most part responsible. Turner’s choice of a determined female protagonist, Judy Woolcot, provided generations of Australian girls with a role model to which they could aspire. It was also the first work of family fiction to portray Australian life in an authentically Australian voice. It was the first Australian children’s book to feature a girl as the hero, thus contributing to the foundation of girls’ literature in Australia. The story focuses on seven siblings growing up in Australia with an authoritarian father and a young, very busy stepmother. The novel Seven Little Australians was first published in 1894 and has been in print longer than any other Australian children’s book. The original 1893 manuscript is the tangible embodiment of Turner’s creative process.

Her best known work is her first novel, Seven Little Australians. Inscriptions on Asia-Pacific National RegistersĪchievements of women in history Stories from women's perspectiveĮthel Turner (1870 – 1958) was an English-born Australian novelist and children's literature writer. Her granddaughter Philippa Poole has published a book about her grandmother entitled The Diaries of Ethel Turner.State Library of New South Wales, Corner of Macquarie Street and Shakespeare Place, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia Ethel Turner died in 1958, leaving as her memorial a book that is now regarded as a classic in children's literature. Seven Little Australians has been read and loved by children all over the world, and it has been continuously in print for over 100 years. Ethel Turner went on to write over 40 books in her lifetime, including children's stories, short stories and poems, many of which appeared in the Town and Country journal and in the Sun Herald newspaper. It has been translated into at least 11 languages, performed as a stage play, and been made into a film, a BBC television series in 1953, and a 10-episode television series for the ABC in 1973. Since then the book has sold over 2 million copies in the English language and has been reprinted over 50 times. In January 1893 she recorded in her diary, 'Night started a new story that I shall call Seven Little Australians.' Later that year, she finished the book, parcelled it up and sent it off to a publisher in Melbourne.

Ethel kept diaries for a remarkable 62 years, recording the details of her full and eventful life. She showed a great love of literature while at school and in her late teens launched a literary and social magazine in Sydney with her sister Lilian. Born in England in 1870, Ethel Turner came to Australia with her mother and sisters when she was 10 years old.

The seven little australians