Becoming Billy Dare

Kirsty Murray is the author of three junior novels – Zarconi’s Magic Flying Fish (winner of the WA Premier’s Children’s Book Award, 2001), Market Blues and Walking Home with Marie Claire – in addition to the first two books in the Children of the Wind series. She has also written several non-fiction books for children. She has worked as a forest ranger, archivist, artist and teacher, and now is a full-time writer. Kirsty Murray was born in Melbourne, the middle child in a family of seven kids. Kirsty loved books from an early age but when she was a child she never read a story set in her home town. So she decided all the good stories had to be happening elsewhere. Finally, after too many years of wandering, she realised that big stories happen everywhere. Kirsty’s novels have won and been shortlisted for many awards. She lives in Melbourne in a big chaotic household with her husband and a tribe of young people.