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Philip Temple

writer, profile published in BRAT, Autumn 2001

I wrote my first story-typed out-at primary school and had my first book published nearly 40 years ago. Since then there has been about one a year-for children of all ages, including adults. No matter how short, how long, how simple or how complicated, they are all stories. Of true adventure and exploration; of the lives of rare New Zealand birds; of the world of mountains and keas; of childhood and, most recently, the story of the family that had most influence on the early British settlement of New Zealand, the Wakefields.

Stories make sense only when they are shared, when the listener hears the song and the storyteller gets to hear about it. A few of the many delights for me have been when my Story of the Kakapo (illustrated by Chris Gaskin) was voted best picture book of the year by the children of Karori Normal School; when a 9 year-old boy told me he read Beak of the Moon (all 380 pages of it) in one go; and when a primary teacher asked me if the story of keas, Strongbeak, Huff-Tuft and Skreek in that book was true. Of course. All stories are true aren't they? Just depends on who's listening and how.