WELCOME! ♡

Thank you so much for being here.

I’m Elisabeth - a writer, children’s author and mum to Jack, Charlie and Isla. I live in Sydney, Australia with my husband, Nick, our three children and our ever-growing collection of animals.

I have always loved words and stories. English was my favourite subject at school, I majored in English and Creative Writing at university, and yet somehow took a fairly significant detour before finding my way back to writing.

After completing my first degree, I returned to university to study nursing. For ten years, I worked as a nurse in ICU and theatres, both in Australia and overseas - work that I genuinely loved.

Then, in 2018, my beautiful mum, Karina, died from cancer.

I stepped away from nursing because I needed some distance from hospitals and illness while I learned how to live in a world without her in it.

And somewhere in the depths of that grief, I found my way back to words.

One night, If You Were Here poured out of me onto paper. It began as a story for my little boy, Jack, who was three when Mum died - a child trying to understand where his Yiayia had gone, and how someone he loved so deeply could still be part of his world when he could no longer see her.

That story became my first picture book and it changed the direction of my life.

Since then, I have continued to write stories for children about the things that matter - love and loss, courage and kindness, hope, belonging, humanity and the extraordinary complexity of the world they are growing up in.

I want children to feel deeply. I want them to ask questions. I want them to recognise themselves in stories, but also to look beyond themselves - to notice other people, other lives and other experiences.

Most of all, I want my books to give children a safe place to explore some of life's biggest feelings and ideas.

My books include If You Were Here, Moonlight, Goodnight, Beresford Bear and Willow, with two new stories, Because of You and Dear Ahmed, currently in the works, alongside my other writing and poetry. I’ve had the privilege of working with some incredibly talented artists and illustrators, including Anita Bagdi, whose beautiful artwork has helped bring so much of my little world to life.

My children's books have been published in Australia, the United States, Japan and South Korea.

Mum's words live on, too. Before she died, she completed her memoir, Life Interrupted, which our family published after her death, with proceeds supporting blood cancer research.

I think, in many ways, everything I create traces back to her.

To love. To loss. To noticing how precious people are while we have them. And to believing that words can reach into places we sometimes can't reach any other way.

There is so much more I want to create, and I’m incredibly grateful that you’re here to be part of it.

Thank you for reading my words, sharing my books with your children, and allowing these stories into your homes. It’s an honour I'll never take lightly.

Love and gratitude,

Elisabeth x