Author & Illustrator

Here it is — my first eBook! The Journey takes you and our hero Bernard to some very odd places — some of them are the wrong way up but everything comes out right in the end.

Its 64 pages are full of games, puzzles, recipes and plenty of weird adventures among the Plummers, the Garden Whingers and the mysterious Pole of Inaccessibility, in search of the secrets of herring pies and the ultimate plum jam formula.

I drew and wrote it for children aged seven and above, and I know they will have as much fun reading and using it as I did in making it.

Even grown-ups can’t resist join-the-dots and board games about those strange creatures, the Pickle Lights, or the recipes for tasty toasty toppings.

This eBook version is just $12.95. Read on screen or, better still, print it and assemble the multi-page maps and games.

This photo is rather blurry — it was snapped at the recent exhibition of Sydney of the Antarctic in Hobart. It shows the kidnapper trying to escape, once again, with the Captain.

Luckily for the Captain, the kidnapper fled the scene soon after the camera caught this action.

Many of you may know the history of the Captain and may have been lucky enough to hear some of his sea shanties whispered to you alone — but for those who don’t know him, here is a little of his history.

The Captain is part of Sydney’s family and many years ago he was sent down to Antarctica on the Australian resupply and scientific ship, the Aurora Australis.
[click to continue...]

On my visit to Saint Stephen’s on the Gold Coast in June, we proclaimed a special day for all toys.

Students came with their toys wrapped in scarves and hidden in crumb-filled corners of their backpacks; some had to get a lift, their toys being rather too large to walk on their own.

Even some teachers and the wonderful staff of the library carried in their special friends… and each had a tale to tell.

As you can see in this photo, the toys all got along very well indeed… and the stories we made up for them made us all laugh.

I hope the toys will be asked back again soon!

A recent ad in a local newspaper about the damage being done to Tasmania’s forests alerted us to the fact that there may be other Sydneys out there, or at least his relatives.

With some research we found the little girl in this photo (now a grown woman) and we have kindly been given permission by photographer Peter Motton to bring you this picture of Wendy and She She in a typical Tasmanian landscape.

It shows a young Wendy Robertson with her much loved toy, She She, looking very much like Sydney. Below is a photo of She She today.

Wendy and I believe that She She is Sydney’s close relative, as they are not the same, but have similar qualities. See what you think.

Wendy wrote me a gorgeous letter where she explains that She She told her that Sydney and her were friends back in Toy Kingdom, where they were created, that he had plans then to travel the world and raise money for charity, and that she would try to contact him through the teddy channels.

Do you know any of Sydney’s relatives? Please let us know.

Welcome to this new site, although it’s just in its infancy. I’m happy to say, (with the help of two good friends), at last it’s here. It will contain some of the normal things you’d expect, information on my most recent publications, a biography etc, and now has my first eBook, The Journey.

The last few years have been a little tragic for myself and for my family, with the loss of dear old Sydney, left behind in the Antarctic.

Although the story of Sydney can now be read in the picture book Sydney Of The Antarctic, for some time I only had the story up to when I left him behind. As I travelled around to schools, many children and teachers wrote and drew stories of their ideas of what has happened to Sydney. This one is from Rachel at Crystal Lake School in Illinois.

[click to continue...]

At last! Sydney has got in touch — this letter and drawing from Sydney were sent to me by a very kind New Zealander, Steve Stokes.

Dearest Coral

As you will understand it is very difficult for me to pick up a pen and to write. I am very lucky as I have found a computer and by standing on the keys with one paw I am able to print letters.

I am very sorry, Coral, you always looked after me so well but sometimes I felt adventurous. The day you took me to see Captain Scott’s hut, you put me on a rock, I wanted to look around and climbed down and ran off. It was very naughty of me, so I deserved what happened next. I found myself all alone. You had gone, the helicopters had gone. I knew I was in for a long hard winter. Most of the first winter I spent in the hut, there was plenty of frozen food and I made a nest in Captain Scott’s sleeping bag.

[click to continue...]

I’ve produced a six-page set of teacher’s notes to accompany Sydney of the Antarctic.

Designed to stimulate imagination and provide a foundation for creative writing and drawing, they include classroom activities for young children and for older students.

There is an outline of the book, the ‘Missing’ poster I drew when Sydney was lost, a postcard for students to send to or from Sydney and ‘Can you find?’ questions from the book.

It’s a PDF and you can download it here. You may print one per class and photocopy it under the usual copying conventions.

Sydney is my toy, bought 46 years ago, to replace a much-loved doll that had been lost. He led a fine life for many years with me and many other toys, until I became a teenager. Sydney and the others then spent many years resting, wrapped up securely in my doll’s house, comforted by camphor balls.

Years later, my daughter opened the doll’s house and found all these friends. She adored Sydney and from then on was never without him, even as she became a teenager herself.

Together we made a decision for me to take Sydney to Antarctica, as he loved travelling and I could take some photographs of his journey for us all. On February 17th, 2005 our yellow Russian Icebreaker crunched to a halt in a floe of ice and ferried off its cargo of passengers to Cape Evans. One of those passengers was Sydney Walton Mouse. After visiting Scott’s Hut, all the passengers returned to their ship — all but one…

I only realised late at night as our ship sailed away from Cape Evans that I had left Sydney behind.

Returning to Australia I had to tell my daughter and all who knew Sydney of what I had done. I immediately applied to return the following summer to try to rescue Sydney and to take my daughter with me.

[click to continue...]