Author Interviews
Michael Salmon - Interview (September 2015)
Q. Tell us five words that best describe you?
Busy, prolific, experienced, humorous, supportive
Q. What prompted you to sit down and write your first story?
It was probably a desire to adapt my art (hitherto paintings and poster work) into a book format with a story (of sorts) attached.
My first title back in 1972 was a self-published effort: ‘The Monster that ate Canberra’.
A whimsical tale about an oversized bunyip devouring the Capital’s iconic buildings that ‘were’ situated around the foreshores of Lake Burley Griffin. It really was an attempt at some artistic satire; ‘The Monster’ in fact was really The Public Service in disguise. It was all a bit smarty-pants and quite amateurish … but it worked!!
The Monster was a character called ‘Alexander Bunyip’ …. Six years later he had his own show on afternoon ABC-TV, which ran for a decade!
In 2011 the ACT Government commissioned a 500 kilogram brass statue of Alexander as a tribute to his role in helping young people learn to read and also to become aware of our National Capital. Alexander stands outside the new Public Library in the Gungahlin Town Square, ACT. It looks great!
Q. Which do you prefer in the creative process? Writing or illustrating?
Prefer the artwork more than writing, but do enjoy ridding my scripts of ambiguity and tautology on second draft look!
17 November 2015 - MICHAEL SALMON - Guest Author and Illustrator
 |
|
G'day folks, Welcome to the life of one of Australia's best authors and illustrators. Michael Salmon has been involved in graphics, Children’s literature, TV and Theatre since 1967. He started his career with surfing cartoons and exhibitions of his psychedelic art and then joined the famous marionette troupe ‘The Tintookies’ as a trainee set designer/stage-manager in 1968 (The Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust, Sydney). Since then his work has been solely for young people both here in Australia and overseas. His many credits include his ‘Alexander Bunyip show’ (ABC TV 1978-88), pantomimes, fabric and varied merchandise designs, toy and board game invention and the writing and illustrating of 176 picture story-books for young readers. Several million copies of his titles have been sold worldwide. Michael has been visiting Australian Primary Schools for over 40 years. Welcome Michael ... 1. Tell us five words that best describe you? Busy, prolific, experienced, humorous, supportive |
 |
|
2. What prompted you to sit down and write your first story? It was probably a desire to adapt my art (hitherto paintings and poster work) into a book format with a story (of sorts) attached. My first title back in 1972 was a self-published effort: ‘The Monster that ate Canberra’. A whimsical tale about an oversized bunyip devouring the Capital’s iconic buildings that ‘were’ situated around the foreshores of Lake Burley Griffin. It really was an attempt at some artistic satire; ‘The Monster’ in fact was really The Public Service in disguise. It was all a bit smarty-pants and quite amateurish … but it worked!! The Monster was a character called ‘Alexander Bunyip’ …. Six years later he had his own show on afternoon ABC-TV, which ran for a decade! In 2011 the ACT Government commissioned a 500 kilogram brass statue of Alexander as a tribute to his role in helping young people learn to read and also to become aware of our National Capital. Alexander stands outside the new Public Library in the Gungahlin Town Square, ACT. It looks great! |
 |
Q&A Michael Salmon
Welcome Michael to Just So Stories!
I know you were born in windy Wellington, New Zealand. Perhaps you could tell us a little about your childhood. Were you always interested in drawing and creating?
My first memories are of the magnificent snow-capped volcanoes viewed from our kitchen window in miserable Waiouru Military Camp in the middle of the north island of New Zealand. My Father was just finishing his NZ military service. He graduated from Duntroon in Canberra as WW2 was ending.
I remember the smell of wax crayons and coloured pencils from those days. I don’t know whether I was drawing with them … or eating them! (As you do)
We returned to Wellington then soon sailed off to England. My Father was doing post-grad work at St John’s College, Cambridge. He spent the rest of his life entrenched within the walls of academe … his specialty was French Religious history.
The UK was a magic place, Enid Blyton monthly magazines, Famous Five Club membership, and brilliant programs for children on early TV, a large collection of toy soldiers and castles and walking past cordoned off bomb-sites on London visits. Camping trips around the UK and into France, couldn’t believe it, those spoilt French kids were given watered down wine to drink!
I loved painting battles between British frigates and Spanish Galleons. After four years we returned to NZ … I was soon lost in the worlds of Narnia and Middle Earth. My room was a total world of imagination; Airfix model planes hung from the ceiling, my soldiers occupied an entire wardrobe. I constructed and painted my own scenery, battle field settings and dioramas for them. I read voraciously.
We moved to Sydney in the early 1960s ….. Bondi Beach, Twist parties and first dates finally enticed me from my room. But I still always read and painted. Our Family fell apart when my Father left my Mother, myself and my three younger siblings … and went off with another woman and remarried. She turned out to be Malcolm Turnbull’s mother, he was my step-brother for a while, we never met. He will without any doubt, be a future Prime Minister of Australia.
I wasn’t trained to do anything so I worked in a road-gang for Woollahra Council, lived in Paddington just behind the old Rushcutters’s Bay Stadium. Often sat at ‘illegally’ on the grass inside the White City Tennis courts at night and listened to Peter, Paul and Mary, Bob Dylan and more artists as they played ‘over the fence’. I wasn’t interested in the local drug scene … I just painted!
